When Betimes Books approached me about translating Vivir Venecia, a memoir by Argentine Abel Posse, I eagerly accepted, in large part because Posse’s life paralleled in many ways Pitol’s, whose seventh book I am currently translating. Not only are they contemporaries, they also share numerous biographical similarities: both are descendants of Italian immigrants, studied law, were career diplomats, and shared a deep connection to and admiration for Venice, which is the both the locus and a protagonist of Posse’s memoir, which I’ve translated as A Long Day in Venice. The similarities, however, end there. Their literary styles could not be more dissimilar. Where Pitol employs long, complex sentences, with interrupting parentheticals, Posse’s syntax is shorter, more linear, and includes the frequent use of fragments.