FICTION
- In Extremis, a novel, Harville Secker, 2017.
- Thomas & Mary, a Love Story, a novel, Harville Secker, 2016.
- Painting Death, a novel, Harville Secker, 2014.
- Sex is Forbidden (The Server), a novel, Harville Secker, 2012.
- Dreams of Rivers and Seas, a novel, Secker &Warburg, 2008.
- Cleaver, a novel, Secker &Warburg, 2006.
- Rapids, a novel, Secker &Warburg, 2005.
- Judge Savage, a novel, Secker &Warburg, 2003.
- Destiny, a novel, Secker &Warburg, 1999.
- Talking About It, a collection of short stories, Hesperus, 2005.
- Europa, a novel, Secker & Warburg, 1997, shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
- Mimi’s Ghost, a novel, Secker & Warburg, 1995.
- Shear, a novel, Heinemann, 1993.
- Goodness, a novel, Heinemann, 1991.
- Cara Massimina, a novel, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990.
- Family Planning, a novel, Collins, 1989.
- Home Thoughts, a novel, Collins, 1987.
- Loving Roger, a novel, Heinemann, 1986, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys prize.
- Tongues of Flame, a novel, Heinemann, 1985, winner of the Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask prizes.
NON FICTION
- The Hero’s Way, Walking with Garibaldi from Rome to Ravenna, Harville Secker, 2021.
- Italian Life, a Modern Fable of Loyalty and Betrayal, Harville Secker, 2020.
- Pen in Hand, Reading, Rereading and Other Mysteries, Alma Books, 2019.
- Out of My Head, On the Trail of Consciousness, Harville Secker, 2018.
- Life and Work, Writers, Readers and the Conversations Between Them, literary criticism, Yale University Press, 2016.
- The Novel, a survival skill, literary criticism, Oxford University Press, 2015.
- A Literary Tour of Italy, essays, Alma Books, 2015.
- Where I’m Reading From: the changing world of books, essays, Harville Secker, 2014.
- Italian Ways, on and of the rails from Milan to Palermo, memoir, Harville Secker, 2013.
- Teach Us to Sit Still, memoir, Harville Secker, 2010.
- The Fighter, essays co, Harville Secker, 2007.
- Medici Money, Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth Century Florence, a work of history, Profile Books, 2005.
- A Season with Verona, Secker & Warburg, 2002.
- Hell and Back, essays, Secker & Warburg, 2001.
- Adultery and Other Diversions, essays, Secker & Warburg, 1998.
- Translating Style: English Modernists and their Italian Translations, Cassells, 1997.
- An Italian Education, Secker & Warburg, 1996
- Italian Neighbours, Heinemann, 1992.
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
- Rodari Have you seen my Hand? London Review of Books, 18 March, 2021
- Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of a Conflict, New York Review of Books, 11 March, 2021
- Milan in a time of coronavirus, Times Literary Supplement, 20 March, 2020
- The People’s Clowns, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, New York Review of Books, 12 March, 2020
- Homeland, Fernando Aramburu, New York Review of Books, 10 October, 2019
- Murder Italian Style, Edoardo Albinati’s Catholic School, Harpers Magazine, September, 2019
- Full of Words: Translations of Elsa Morante’s Arturo’s Island, London Review of Books, 15 August, 2019
- George Sand, Devils v’s Dummies, London Review of Books, 23 May, 2019
- Giambattista Basile, The Rabelais of Naples, New York Review of Books, 9 May, 2019
- Behind the High Walls, Giorgio Bassani’s Novel of Ferrara, Harpers Magazine, February, 2019
- Lamartine’s Graziella, London Review of Books, 21 February, 2019
- Chateaubriand, London Review of Books, 27 September, 2018
- Tolstoy v’s Tolstaya, London Review of Books, 26 April, 2018
- Keep the Ball Rolling, an essay on Natalia Ginzburg , London Review of Books, 29 June, 2017
- Thunderstruck, an essay on Victor Hugo, London Review of Books, 4 May, 2017
- How Mary Became George, an essay on George Eliot, , New York Review of Books, November 9, 2017
- Mr Smith Goes to Rome, Italian reception of American literature under Fascism, , New York Review of Books, October 12, 2017
- A Game of Love and Chance, Martutene
by Ramon Saizarbitoria, New York Review of Books, June 8, 2017
- Yuk’s Last Laugh, an essay on Gustave Flaubert , London Review of Books, 15 December, 2016
- A Pair of Yellow Gloves, an essay on Stendhal, London Review of Books, 15 December, 2016
- Between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines, a Life of Dante Alighieri , London Review of Books, July 14, 2016
- The Passion of the Bureaucrats, Skulduggery in the Vatican, , London Review of Books, February 18, 2016
- Montaigne: what was truly courageous, , New York Review of Books, November 24, 2016
- The Pleasures (and otherwise) of Reading Stephen King, , New York Review of Books, October 13, 2016
- L’avventura, an essay on Jhumpa Lahiri, , New York Review of Books, March 24, 2016
- In Some Sense True, an essay on J M Coetzee and Arabella Kurz, , London Review of Books, January 21, 2016
- The Road to Freedom, an essay on Simon Critchley, , New York Review of Books, January 14, 2016
- The Mystery of Primo Levi, , New York Review of Books, November 5, 2015
- Italy’s Seriously Playful Genius, essay on Antonio Tabucchi, New York Review of Books, June 4, 2015
- Revolutionary Italy, the Masterwork, essay on Ippolito Nievo’s Confessions of an Italian, New York Review of Books, April 2, 2015
- The Charms of Loneliness, essay on Haruki Murakami, New York Review of Books, October 23, 2014
- Muriel Spark, Moral Hypnotist, essay on Muriel Spark’s fiction and essays, New York Review of Books, October 9, 2014
- Bitten by an Adder: Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native, London Review of Books, July 17, 2014
- The Ultimate Koan, essay on Peter Matthiessen’s novel, In Paradise, New York Review of Books, April 3, 2014
- How does he come to be mine?: Dickens’s Children, London Review of Books, August 8, 2013
- Why So Popular, essay on Fifty Shades of Grey, New York Review of Books, February 7, 2013
- David Eggers Abroad, New York Review of Books, October 11, 2012
- Do They See Through The Murk, essay on William Boyd and Andrés Neuman, New York Review of Books, August 16, 2012
- Joyce and Company, an essay on Joyce, London Review of Books, July 5, 2012
- Chekhov: Behind the Charm, New York Review of Books, April 5, 2012
- Do We Need the Nobel an essay on the Nobel Prize for Literature (New York Review, December 22, 2011)
- On Needing to Be Looked After an essay on the letters of Samuel Beckett (London Review, December 1, 2011)
- Dying Laughter an essay Inge Schultz, William Giraldi and Romantic Comedy (New York Review, November 24, 2011)
- The Dutch are Coming an essay on post-war Dutch novels (New York Review, October 27, 2011)
- A Most Delicate Invention an essay on banking, fairth and art in 15th century Florence (London Review, November 4, 2010)
- A Most Delicate Invention an essay on banking, fairth and art in 15th century Florence (London Review, November 4, 2010)
- Making Fun of the Stories We Know an essay on Peter Stamm (New York Review, July 14, 2011)
- The Moralist an essay on Stieg Larsson (New York Review, June 9, 2011)
- Beware Remembrance Sunday an essay on Graham Swift (London Review, June 1, 2011)
- Life at the Core an essay on Colm Toibin (New York Review, April 7, 2011)
- The Truth about Consuela an essay on Phillip Roth (London Review, November 4, 2010)
- Strange Love in the North, an essay on Per Petterson, Hugo Claus and Gerbrand Bakker, in the NYRB, June 24, 2010
- America First, an essay on contemporary fiction and translation in the NYRB, July 15, 2010
- Stop It and Act an essay on Cesare Pavese (London Review, Feb 11, 2010)
- The Education of ‘John Coetzee’, New York Review, Feb 11, 2010
- L’impasse de l’Enfant-Jésus: some remarks on Beckett’s bilingualism, Letteratura e Letterature, 2010
- Semantic Polarities in the works of Thomas Hardy and D H Lawrence, Merope, 53-54, January-July, 2009
- In the Kangaroo’s Pouch, an essay on Geoff Dyer (New York Review, July 16, 2009)
- After the Earthquake, an essay on Ignazio Silone (London Review, July 9, 2009)
- Bloody Glamour, an essay on Giuseppe Mazzini (London Review, April 30, 2009)
- Knock on Wood, an essay on Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (New York Review, April 30, 2009)
- The Dark in the Piazza, an essay on Elsa Morante (New York Review, February 12, 2009)
- The Knife by the Handle, an essay on family biographies by Doris Lessing, Isabelle Allende, Miranda Seymour, Rachel Sontag and Marie Brenner (New York Review, September 25, 2008)
- Ann Enright, essay on the Booker-winning novel, ‘The Gathering’, (New York Review, January 2008)
- David Plante, essay on (New York Review, December 2007)
- Che pasticcio! an essay on Gadda, (London Review of Books), September 20 2007
- Let Sleeping Beauties Lie, an essay on Elfriede Jelinek, in the New York Review, July 19, 2007
- The Insurgent, an essay on Garibaldi, in the New Yorker, July 9, 2007
- Thomas Bernhard, essay on, (New York Review, January 11, 2007)
- Preface to Vitaliano Brancati’s ‘The Beautiful Antonio’, Penguin Classics, 2007
- True Scandal, a preface to Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’, The Folio Society 2006
- Samuel Beckett, essay on, (New York Review, July 13, 2006)
- The Horrors of War, an essay on Curzio Malaparte’s work ‘Kaputt’ in the New York Review, 1 December 2005
- Surrender by Gondola, a long review of Jonathan Keates’ book ‘The Siege of Venice’ in The London Review of Books, 1 December, 2005
- An essay on Garibaldi and Rome appeared in The London Review of Books, July, 2005
- An introduction to D. H. Lawrence’s three books on Italy appeared in a new Penguin edition of the books entitled D.H. Lawrence and Italy
- Preface to Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Contini appeared in Everyman Classics new edition of the book in Spring 2005, and also in the New York Review in June, 2005
- Description of a Struggle, an essay on Dostoevsky (The Nation, June 14, 2004)
- Retreat to Reality, an essay on the South Tyrol (New York Review, May 27, 2004
- SS Proleterka, an essay on Fleur Jaeggy (New York Review, February 12, 2004)
- Arthur’s Island, a short essay on Elsa Morante’s best novel (New Statesman, December 1st, 2003)
- The Outsider’s Art, essay on Cesare Pavese (New York Review, November 6th, 2003)
- The Fighter, essay on D H Lawrence (New York Review, September 25, 2003)
- Mad at the Medicis, an essay on the Pazzi conspiracy (New York Review, May 1, 2003)
- The Cosimos, an essay on the Medici family (New York Review, December 19, 2002) This is also published in Italian in La Rivista dei Libri, September 2003.
- Tales Told by a Computer, essay on hypertext narrative, (New York Review, October, 2002)
- Thomas Bernhard, essay on, (New York Review, June, 2002)
- Famous Women, an essay on Giovanni Boccaccio (New York Review, March, 2002)
- Letty Fox, Our Luck, an essay on Christina Stead (New York Review, 2001)
- Hell and Back, an essay on Dante’s Inferno (New Yorker, January 2001)
- On Henry Green (New York Review, November 2000)
- Fascist Work, on the Italian painter Mario Sironi (New York Review, August 2000)
- The Universal Gentleman, an essay on Borges (New York Review, 2000)
- The Hunter, an essay on G.W. Sebald (New York Review 25/5/2000)
- In Love with Leopardi (New York Review, March 2000)
- Imagining Robert (Lancet UK and New York Review, January 2000)
- Imagining Robert (Lancet UK and New York Review, January 2000)
- On and off the High Road, an essay on the idea of national character as developed in Ian Buruma’s, Voltaire’s Coconuts (London Review vol 21, no.11, 27/5/1999)
- Unlocking the Mind’s Manacles, an essay on Gregory Bateson and his Italian disciples (New York Review vol. XLVI no. 17, 7/10/1999)
- Sentimental Education, an essay on Vikram Seth (New York Review vol. XLVI no.12, 15/7/1999)
- Gods and Monsters, an essay on Salman Rushdie, (New York Review vol. XLVI no.8, 6/5/1999)
- Sightgeist, an essay on José Saramago New York Review vol. XLVI no.3, 18/2/1999)
- A Prisoner’s Dream: Montale in English, (New York Review vol. XLVI no.2, 4/2/1999)
- Different Worlds, an essay on the limits of translation (in ‘Translation of Poetry and Poetic Prose – Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 110’, The Nobel foundation, Stockholm, 1999)
- Prajapati: upon translating a paragraph of Roberto Calasso, The London Review of Books, 1998.
- Joyce, Saba, and Svevo in Trieste, The New York Review of Books, 1995
- Rethinking the Task of the Translator, Rivista internazionale di tecnica della traduzione, Trieste, 1995.
- ‘Translating Distance: an approach to Beckett through a consideration of the Italian tranlations of ‘Murphy’ and ‘Watt‘, Il confronto letterario, University of Pavia, 1996.
- Barbara Pym and the Untranslatable Commonplace, published in a collection of essays on Barbara Pym, IULM University, Milan, 1996.
- Translating the Evocative Spirit in ‘A Portrait of the Artist’ and ‘Ulysses’, Il confronto letterario, University of Pavia, 1994.
- Discovering Joyce through Translation, published in the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Translation, Kuala Lumpur, 1993.
- Translation, a Tool for Criticism, published in the proceedings of the FIT XIII World Congress, 1993.
TRANSLATIONS
- The Book of All Books, Roberto Calasso, Penguin Classics, 2021
- The House on the Hill, Cesare Pavese, Penguin Classics, 2021
- The Moon and the Bonfires, Cesare Pavese, Penguin Classics, 2021
- Passions (a selection from the Zibaldoni), Giacomo Leopardi, Yale University Press, 2014
- The Prince, Machiavelli, Penguin Classics, 2009
- Literature and the Gods, by Roberto Calasso, Knopf, 2000
- Ka, (Ka) by Roberto Calasso, Knopf, 1998.
- La paura del cielo, (Last Vanities) by Fleur Jaeggy, New Directions, 1998
- Prima che tu dica pronto (Numbers in the Dark) by Italo Calvino, Pantheon Books, 1995
- La strada di San Giovanni (The Road to San Giovanni) by Italo Calvino, Pantheon Books, 1993. The translation was awarded the John Florio Prize.
- Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia (The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony) by Roberto Calasso, Knopf, 1993. The translation was awarded the Italo Calvino Prize.
- I beati anni del castigo (Sweet Days of Discipline) by Fleur Jaeggy, Heinemann, 1991. The translation was awarded the John Florio Prize.
- C’è un punto della terra (A place on Earth… A Woman in Birkenau) by Giuliana Tedeschi, Pantheon Books, 1992.
- I volatili del Beato Angelico (The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico), by Antonio Tabucchi, Chatto & Windus, 1989.
- La donna di Porto Pim (The Woman of Porto Pim), by Antonio Tabucchi, Chatto & Windus, 1989.
- Il filo dell’orizzonte (Vanishing Point) by Antonio Tabucchi, Chatto & Windus, 1989.
- Notturno indiano (Indian Nocturne) by Antonio Tabucchi, Chatto & Windus, 1988.
- Viaggio a Roma (Journey to Rome) by Alberto Moravia, Secker & Warburg, 1989.
- L’uomo che guarda (The Voyeur) by Alberto Moravia, Secker & Warburg, 1986.
- La cosa (Erotic Tales) by Alberto Moravia, Secker & Warburg 1985.