"The Small Measures" is an invitation to an intimate and relaxed conversation with an unforgettable hostess. On a variety of topics, from educating children for the profession of writing and from villages in southern Italy to roadside inns outside London, Ginzburg presents original opinions that are ahead of their time and illuminate our time anew. However, Ginzburg, even in her biographical and essayistic writing, is always telling a story. The stories are built from everyday experiences and objects – worn-out shoes, beef patties, childhood, silence – everything is filled with new meaning. The conversation heats up in an instant; the hostess does not shy away from exposing her full vulnerability – and, by the way, exposing our full vulnerability – as she illuminates the ridicule and defeat, but also the strength and beauty inherent in our human connections. Ginzburg remains "true to herself as never before," as Italo Calvino, who edited the book and defined it as her best book, writes. She condemns petty morals, and calls on us to educate and be educated according to lofty values. "When you write a story," she instructs us, "you have to throw in all the good and beautiful things we have to offer, that we have seen and experienced, that we have collected throughout our lives." In this small-big book that you hold in your hands, the author puts the advice she recommends into practice with grace and power, and shares with us a heroic life that is equally familiar and human. "A punch in the gut with pain and exemplary beauty" Maggie Nelson "I really love and admire petty morals" Zadie Smith "The book that taught me how I want to educate my daughter" Belle Boggs, "The New Yorker"