The House on Via Gemito

A Novel

De: Domenico Starnone, Oonagh Stransky - translator

Narrado por: Paul Bellantoni

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR—the Washington Post & Kirkus Reviews

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE

This extraordinary Strega Prize-winning novel confirms Domenico Starnone's reputation as one of Italy's greatest living writers. Told against the backdrop of Naples in the 1960s, a city that itself becomes a vivid character in this lush, atmospheric novel, The House on Via Gemito is a masterpiece of Italian fiction.

A modest apartment in Via Gemito smelling of paint and turpentine. Its furniture pushed up against the wall to create a studio. Drying canvases moved from bed to floor each night. Federí, the father, a railway clerk, is convinced that he possesses great artistic promise. If it weren't for the family he must feed and the jealousy of his fellow artists, nothing would stop him from becoming a famous painter. Ambitious and frustrated, talented but also arrogant and resentful, Federí is scarred by constant disappointment. He is a larger-than-life character, a liar, a fabulist, and his fantasies shape the lives of those around him, especially his son, Mimi, who will spend a lifetime trying to get out from under his father's shadow.

©2020 Giulio Einaudi, Translation copyright 2023 by Europa Editions (P)2024 Tantor Media

Not sure why all the prizes

I love Italy and all things Italian. My grandparents came from Italy and so when I see a book that won so many prizes in Italy, I am instantly drawn. I got through more than half the book but struggled with the endless descriptions of a horrific father. Over and over and over. I searched for the writing that would engage me, the character development that would make me want to read further, but all I found for endless pages (readings) was that despicable father. I had to leave it behind.

One of the very Best

Brilliant woven tale of Italy / family / Art / vivid Naples family tale - unforgettable characters an absolute literary masterpiece