I think that being an editor, someone who works with words, is very good training for being a translator because it trains you to be attentive to words in a very specific, very concrete, very literal way.

It's really the story of a young woman, or two women, growing up in Naples in a poor neighborhood. The way that they get out of it - or don't get out of it - that's part of it. But it's also the story of the mid-20th century in Italy so it's really like a social, historical and personal novel. I think that even though I didn't live in Italy in those years, it did cover that same type of generational upbringing that someone like me might've had in America.

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.

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

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.