by Elsa Morante

Born in Rome in 1912 to Irma Poggibonsi and Francesco Lo Monaco, Elsa Morante was the second of the unmarried couple’s five children. Irma, a Jewish schoolteacher, raised the children with her husband, Augusto Morante, who worked as a tutor at the Aristide Gabelli school. Both he and Morante’s biological father were Catholic. Mainly self-educated, Morante left home at the age of 18 to dedicate herself to journalism. In 1936 she met Alberto Moravia, who was already a novelist of some repute. Like Morante, Moravia was part Jewish and had been baptized—facts that would greatly affect their experience in wartime Italy. Morante’s relationship with Moravia brought her into contact with leading Italian intellectuals. She and Moravia married, and remained so for 22 years (1941-1963). Early in the marriage, Morante published her first novel, House of Liars (Menzogna e sortilegio, 1948), for which...