Ann Goldstein, whose translations include books by Ferrante and Primo Levi, discusses her work

Translators rarely get to share much of the author’s spotlight. But Elena Ferrante, the Italian author of the critically acclaimed Neapolitan Novels, has created a special situation: she refuses to make her identity public, and her works are booming in the U.S., surely thanks in part to her English-language translator Ann Goldstein.

Goldstein, the head of the copy department at The New Yorker by day, doesn’t know the true identity of the writer known as Elena Ferrante, whose book The Story of the Lost Child was just released in English. But Goldstein doesn’t necessarily need to interact with an author, only the text. Case in point: The Complete Works of Primo Levi, which W.W. Norton’s Liveright imprint will soon publish and for which she translated three books. Goldstein spoke with TIME about her work, and the responsibility of being a translator. More.

See: TIME

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