The Joke
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Summary
For years Daniel has lived alone in Milan, devoted to his work. One day his daughter, a university lecturer, asks him to come to Naples for a few days to look after little Mario while she and her estranged husband travel for work. At seventy, Mallarico must return to his hometown and move into the apartment where he spent his childhood, a place crowded with the “ghosts” of the past.
As the exhausted, distracted old painter matches wits with his tireless “little soldier,” he is also drawn into deep reflection on the ideals and life choices of his youth, and a violent, unsettled, passionate Naples surfaces, its mark on Daniel still plainly visible.
After Ties, Domenico Starnone once again turns to family relations in his new novel The Joke. In this compact novel he keeps readers smiling throughout while never forgetting to dissect with precision our fears, and our bewilderment in the face of life’s tenacity.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in exploring family ethics and human complexity
- Literature lovers who enjoy modern European fiction and psychological detail
- Readers who wish to understand the landscape of contemporary Italian literature
- Mature readers who appreciate a calm, restrained narrative style
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light entertainment or fast-paced plotting
- Readers with little patience for interior monologue and detailed exposition
Reading tips
- Read in a quiet setting and pay attention to the author's nonlinear treatment of time and memory
- Read alongside the other works in Starnone's "family trilogy" to understand his creative trajectory
- Watch the tension between dialogue and interior monologue, and savor the subtle layers of the characters' relationships
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 第一章
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 第二章
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 九
- 十
- 第三章
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 附录
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About the author
Domenico Starnone is a contemporary Italian writer whose works have reached Chinese readers as foreign literature. Five of his books have so far been translated and published in Chinese, including Confidenza (Trust), Lacci (Ties), Scherzetto (A Joke), La ragazza di Milano (The Milan Girl), and a title included in the Shanghai Translation Publishing House 2020 Selected Collection. Because public information is limited, his full biography, educational background, and honors are not yet widely known to Chinese readers; yet the translated works alone reveal a consistent literary orientation. He tends to approach from within family and intimate relationships, taking cracks, concealments, and emotional imbalances in everyday life as the core of his narratives, and depicting his characters' psychology with restrained and precise prose. This sustained examination of marriage, kinship, and self-deception gives his fiction a strong sense of realism and psychological tension, earning him attention in the Chinese-speaking world and making him a noteworthy author in recent translations of contemporary Italian fiction.
Chen Ying was born in Shaanxi in 1977. She is a professor of Italian, doctoral supervisor, and head of the Department of Italian at Sichuan International Studies University, and holds a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Macerata in Italy. Centering on the translation and teaching of Italian literature, she is the Chinese translator of the "Neapolitan Novels" and has translated more than 40 Italian works, ranging from novels and essays to classics. The library holds 36 of her works, including Chinese translations of Fragments, The Story of a New Name, The Long Life of Marianna, The Legend of 1900, and representative works by writers such as Primo Levi and Umberto Eco. She has received the National First Prize for Translation of Less Commonly Taught Languages, the 2020 One-Way Street Translator of the Year award, the 2021 Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Translation Award. Her translations and editorial choices have had a notable influence in the field of foreign literary translation.
