Das heimliche Spiel und andere Erzählungen

At night, the children escape from their dilapidated noble background and the bleak, frugal existence of their family into the enchanting world of theater, filled with knights, princesses, and ship captains, into the realm of comedies and tragedies. However, one day their secret play is discovered.

This volume follows the strict selection made by Elsa Morante in 1941 from the numerous publications in magazines and newspapers that had sustained her for years.

Like her four extensive novels, these short texts (including "The Andalusian Scarf") showcase Morante's great narrative artistry. The stories are characterized by the incomprehensibility of things and the relationships between people, by affection and withdrawal of love, by care and coldness, by love and hate. They begin quietly and mundanely, leaving their heroes in a state of suspended uncertainty.