Kudos

“magnificently, disturbingly mesmerizing… an absolutely stunning translation by Anne Milano Appel”

in Open Letters Review, April 30, 2022

“It is heady, disorientating stuff. Thankfully, you are always left with the language to cling to. And herein lies the novel’s real strength: the translation by Anne Milano Appel is sublime, the prose rich and lyrical, creating a dreamlike intensity that makes even the more impenetrable passages a joy to wade through.”

in The Guardian, February 1, 2013

“The Human Body makes for gripping, but uneasy reading ... Giordano’s work is an extraordinary accomplishment rendered into beautiful English by translator Anne Milano Appel.”

See complete  October 2, 2014 review here

“Even as we are parsing this passage and already admiring the deftness … of Anne Milano Appel’s exemplary translation, the novel has rushed past us…Such passages make one acutely aware of the challenges that Appel must have faced—and finessed—in rendering Canobbio’s Italian into English.”

“Although it sprawls across 670 pages, it should now gain even wider success because of the quality of the translation. Capturing not only the pace of the narration but the vitality of the woman at its center, translator Anne Milano Appel has done a classy job.” 

“Thank you, indeed, for having demonstrated, once again, that there are no untranslatable books.”

“Anzitutto ti ringrazio, ancora una volta, tanto, per questa tua consonanza, per questa tua vicinanza. Del resto, senza questa congenialità, elemento fondamentale per una traduzione letteraria, non ci sarebbe probabilmente la tua così bella versione di Alla cieca .”  

“Reading the poems one after the other, I realize that not only the meaning is returned but also the sound, the most difficult part of a translation. You did it. You gave me back the rhythm, the recess, the stand, the break, the caesure, the accelerations of the verse as well as the silence that lays down in certain words. Grazie Anne, you have been a gift to my poetry.”

~ Fabiano Alborghetti

“Some muses give inspiration, not before the creation but after, and you are one of them.”

“Congratulations on a beautiful, entrancing translation.”

“Once you’ve started the book, you will quickly understand why Anne Milano Appel recently won the prestigious Northern California Book Award for her English translation of poet and playwright Bortolussi’s first novel. Milano Appel masterfully grasps and skillfully presents all of the subtleties and contradictions of the protagonist’s internal struggle as he battles the twin fears of responsibility and loss.”