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The Magic Barrel (“Il barile magico”) is a short-story collection by Bernard Malamud, first published in English in 1958, translated into Italian by Vincenzo Mantovani and published by Einaudi in 1964. The volume comprises twilight lives of marginal characters—immigrants, the poor, the displaced—grappling with faith, identity, longing, small betrayals, and unexpected grace. Malamud’s prose combines realism and humane empathy, often set in working-class New York but touching universal themes: redemption, spiritual yearning, the tensions between suffering and hope. The translation preserves the mixture of subtle humor and pathos, contributing significantly to the reception of Malamud in Italy in the 1960s.