Mr. Gwyn (28 page)

The wind is right, he said. Maybe we could go out on the bay.

The woman said nothing. Her eyes were fixed on the house.

You'll leave tonight, what will happen? said the man.

Then the woman turned to him and saw the same face she had seen so many other times, the crooked teeth, the pale eyes, the
boyish lips, the hair spiky on his head. It took her a while to say something. She was thinking of the mysterious permanence of love, in the unceasing current of life.

ALESSANDRO BARICCO
is an Italian writer, director, and performer. He has won the Prix Médicis Étranger in France and the Selezione Campiello, Viareggio, and Palazzo al Bosco prizes in Italy.

ANN GOLDSTEIN
is an editor at the
New Yorker
. She has translated works by, among others, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alessandro Baricco, Romano Bilenchi, and Elena Ferrante. She is currently editing the Complete Works of Primo Levi in English, and has been the recipient of a PEN Renato Poggioli translation award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.