"Speaking from her book-lined New York apartment, Goldstein tells me that she chose to translate There's No Turning Back because of its intensity. It's the sort of novel, she says, like Forbidden Notebook (the first De Céspedes' novel Goldstein translated) that pulls you in immediately. Indeed, from its first line, There's No Turning Back propels the reader into the midst of daily life at the Grimaldi pensione-convent: 'As the nun read the last words of the evening prayer, an indolent chorus of girls responded: "Amen"'."
"Ann Goldstein's new English translation of Italian-Cuban author Alba De Céspedes' debut novel, There's No Turning Back (Nessuna Torno Indietro, 1938), is the first since the novel - and contracts for further translations of its text - was banned by the Mussolini regime in 1941. Despite its initial critical and commercial success, the novel's portrayal of eight young women living in a convent-run boarding house in Rome in the 1930s was judged 'immoral' by Fascist censors."
There's No Turning Back (Nessuna Torno Indietro, 1938) was banned by the Mussolini regime in 1941 after contracts for further translations were halted and censors judged its content 'immoral'. The novel depicts eight young women living in a convent-run boarding house in 1930s Rome and employs a polyphonic, anonymised collective voice that conveys impatience and constraint. Major themes include antifascist aesthetics, class dynamics and a frank portrayal of feminine desire. A new English translation by Ann Goldstein restores access to the work decades after the ban. Goldstein chose the novel for its intensity and immediate narrative pull.
Read at The New Inquiry
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