Released to mark 50 years since the publication of Xenia and 120 years since Eugenio Montale's birth, Arc's dual-language edition is a timely reminder of this Nobel prize-winning Italian poet. A heartfelt elegy for the poet's dead wife, Xenia is one of the landmark achievements of 20th century Italian poetry. Montale's famously 'elusive and allusive' modernism is stripped bare in a humble expression of grief,all the more devastating for its simplicity. Here is the quiet melancholy of a life no longer shared and all the mundanities of mourning. Mario Petrucci's translations revitalise this masterpiece and Montale's lasting 'gift' to his wife.