ALESSANDRO BARICCO is an Italian writer, director, and performer. He has won the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio, and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy.

ANN GOLDSTEIN is an editor at the New Yorker. She has translated works by, among others, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alessandro Baricco, Romano Bilenchi, and Elena Ferrante. She is currently editing the Complete Works of Primo Levi in English, and has been the recipient of a PEN Renato Poggioli translation award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.