Cassie McCullough

and it's beautifully told it's a book called happy baby by an author called stephen elliott uh who wrote a little bit for mcsweeney's in the states um but this is published through mccadam cage i think so it was a small it was quite a small run but it's the story of of a boy in the us who whose parents sort of deserted him and he's been locked into group homes and and so forth but it's told in reverse the

It was actually edited by Dave Eggers, this book, and I think it was his determination that the book would be better told in reverse.

Yes, the heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius.

Yes, 826 Valencia, and he's a wonderful author, and the heartbreaking work was an important book for me also.

I really loved that book.

But this one is special.

It's very, it's almost hard to describe, but it's unforgettable.

It's told with such nuance, but it's so direct.

It's hard to describe just how disarming this book is, but I found it really, really beautiful.

And so I think there are some links with this one and Honey Bee as well.

But look, honorable mention in recent years, there was a book of short stories by Wells Tower called Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.

It's probably my favorite book of short stories to be honest with you.

It is just perfectly written.

Oh, thanks for having me.

It was a real pleasure.

The program you're about to hear contains language that may offend some listeners.

And I'm Cassie McCullough.

And it's in translation because today the two books we're reading were originally written in Italian.

Elena Ferrante's The Lying Life of Adults and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard, both from Italy.

One is just out, fresh on the stands or in the bookshops, and one is from 1958.