"For the past two months, I’ve been working on the Greek translation of Enrico Terrinoni’s La vita dell’altro. Svevo, Joyce: un’amicizia geniale (The Other’s Life. Joyce and Svevo: A Brilliant Friendship), a biographical, anecdotal, and at times essayistic narrative that focuses on the lives of two of the greatest writers and intellectuals ever to have graced the global stage. One of the most renowned translators of Joyce and a professor of English Literature at Università per Stranieri di Perugia, Terrinoni combines philological precision with narrative flair, crafting a book that appeals both to seasoned readers and to newcomers to Svevo and Joyce alike.
What makes the book truly compelling is its exploration of a literary friendship as a turning point in the creative lives of both authors. Svevo, a marginal and nearly unknown writer at the time, was recognized by Joyce as a talent worth championing; Joyce, in turn, found in Svevo a mirror for his own existential and artistic questions. Terrinoni shows how, through this intellectual bond, universal themes emerge: the search for identity, the role of the other in self-discovery, and writing as a space of freedom.
This masterfully written book offers not only a vivid portrait of Mitteleuropean Trieste, but also a powerful reflection on how literature is born through dialogue and mutual recognition. At its heart lies the extraordinary story of two friends—two writers—bound together by art and time."