The Dry Heart

Episode 59

This week, we are joined by an all-star cast to discuss our 2023 summer read, Natalia Ginzburg’s The Dry Heart. Two of the most insightful readers we know, Merve Emre and Kim McNeil, share wonderful insights and thoughts and help us uncover aspects of Ginzburg’s brilliant work that we had never considered before. We hope your enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

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Shownotes

Books

• The Dry Heart, by Natalia Ginzburg

• The Ten Thousand Things, by Maria Dermout, translated by Hans Koening

• A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939 - 1940, by Iris Origo

• War in Val d’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943 - 1944, by Iris Origo

• More Was Lost, by Eleanor Perenyi

• Thus Were Their Faces, by Silvana Ocampo, translated by Daniel Balderston

• The Hearing Trumpet, by Leonora Carrington

• The Biography of X, by Catherine Lacey

• Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

• The Last Chronicle of Barset, by Anthony Trollope

• The Warden, by Anthony Trollope

• Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope

• The Librarianist, by Patrick deWitt

• Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, and the City of Arles, by Lydia Davis

• Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis

• The End of the Story, by Lydia Davis

• Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto, translated by Guido Waldman

• No Tomorrow, by Vivant Denon, translated by Lydia Davis

• Family Lexicon, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Jenny McPhee

• Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Rereader, by Vivian Gornick

• Valentino, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Avril Bardoni

• Sagittarius, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Avril Bardoni

• The Little Virtues, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Dick Davis

• Happiness as Such, by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Minna Procter

• Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

• Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, by Barbara Comyns

• The Vet’s Daughter, by Barbara Comyns

Other

• Public Books: “B-Sides: Natalia Ginzburg’s The Dry Heart,” by Merve Emre

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About the Podcast

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another.

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