I always hesitate to say that something is lifelike.

I tend to be kind of literal about translation. I think it's important to present the writer as closely as possible.

One naturally identifies to some extent with an "I" female narrator going through something that you recognize whether you've gone through it or not.

I think it's important to be accurate on the level of the word, but it's also important to be accurate at the level of the sentence, at the level of the paragraph. Sometimes you lose sight of that - I remind myself to go back and read.

The Neapolitan novels have a lot of references to things outside, to things of the world, to culture, politics, the city of Naples. People have mentioned that Naples is like a character in the novels.

Primo Levi's - I mean, he's a very different kind of writer. He's a much more formal writer. He's a much more -almost detached. I mean, I wouldn't really say that he's detached ultimately. But he does write as a scientist, and so he describes things very - in great detail, very carefully.

That's a huge subject - a writer refusing to do publicity but writing about publicity.