Two Friends

In this set of novellas, a few facts are constant. Sergio is a young intellectual, poor and proud of his new membership in the Communist Party. Maurizio is handsome, rich, successful with women, and morally ambiguous. Sergio’s young, sensual lover becomes collateral damage in the struggle between these two men. All three of these unfinished stories, found packed in a suitcase after Alberto Moravia’s death, share this narrative premise. But from there, each story unfolds in a unique way. The first patiently explores the slow unfurling of Sergio’s resentment toward Maurizio. The second reveals the calculated bargain Maurizio offers in exchange for his conversion to Sergio’s beloved Communism. And the third switches dramatically to the first person, laying bare Sergio’s conflicted soul.
   Anyone interested in literature will relish the opportunity to watch Moravia at work, tinkering with his story and working at it from three unique perspectives.

Alberto Moravia, born in Rome in 1907, was one of the greatest Italian writers of the twentieth century. Moravia started his career as a journalist for several major Italian newspapers and magazines. His acclaimed novels include The Woman of Rome, The Conformist, Contempt, Two Women, and Conjugal Love (Other Press), and several have been turned into films by Bernardo Bertolucci and Jean-Luc Godard. In 1952 Moravia received the Strega Prize, Italy’s most prestigious literary award, for the best work of prose fiction by an Italian author. Later in life, he
entered politics and represented Italy in the European Parliament from 1984 until his death in 1990.
 
Marina Harss studied comparative literature and translation at Harvard and New York University. Her translations include Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Stories from the City of God (Other Press), stories in The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda by Sonia Rivera-Valdes, and Alberto Moravia’s Conjugal Love (Other Press). Her translations have also appeared in The Latin American Review, Bomb, and Brooklyn Rail.