From the Italian countryside, where Ginzburg and her husband lived in exile under fascist rule, to the melancholy streets of 1960s London, Ginzburg's essays vibrate with observations that transcend time and place.
 
In eleven essays, Ginzburg rests her gaze on the human intimacies that shape and define our lives: friendships, marriage and parenthood. She describes her longest relationship – with her writing – in a definitive piece on vocation and motherhood, while her groundbreaking essay on raising children remains as vital as the day it was written.
 
The Little Virtues is a poignant portrait of Italy in the twentieth century and a singular work of memoir: intrepid, wise and dazzling.