Description
Book Synopsis A property harbouring a gruesome secret goes up for sale. Two men—perhaps, the wrong men—are shot in plain daylight. Nothing is what it seems. And matters do not turn out as anticipated. De Angelis, an inscrutable northerner, is travelling to a small town perched somewhere in Sicily’s hinterland to negotiate a real estate transaction, only to find himself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy. While en route, the train he’s on mysteriously breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a squalid whistle stop. What follows is a web of unsettling events, involving child prostitution and brazen killings, leading to the abrupt demise of his business deal. But De Angelis is undeterred and intent on discovering what went wrong with his transaction. As he embarks on a reckless sleuthing, an unexpected turn of events sends him into a tailspin. At the heart of it is an alluring blue-eyed girl, Marinella. The chance encounter with the eleven-year-old traps him in a psychological and moral cul-de-sac, leaving him no choice but to confront the type of man he really is. Told in a cinematic, darkly humorous genre-bending prose,
The Transaction traces De Angelis’ Kafkaesque descent into deviancy.
Trade Review"Absurd in all the right ways, The Transaction reads almost like what Kafka would have written if hed been asked to do a remake of Scorseses After Hours but set in Sicily and over the course of a week instead of a night. A strange and dynamic and entertaining debut." -- Brian Evenson, Guggenheim Fellow and author of A Collapse of Horses
"Mysterious, stark and cinematic, Guglielmo D'Izzias debut novel The Transaction takes the reader on an array of escalating and disturbing encounters. Perception is everything in the Sicilian town of Figallia where an out-of-town businessman from the north becomes immersed in small-town life and its history of menace. Rife with dark undercurrents like a Giorgio de Chirico painting, the surface is not what it seems. Eerily detailed and atmospheric, this tightly controlled narrative brims with tension." -- Catherine Graham, author of Quarry and The Celery Forest
"Guglielmo DIzzias first novel is a dish seasoned with mystery, suspense, sensuality and Sicily. A slow train ride, an unscheduled stop in a southern Italian town inhabited by a collection of unpredictable characters who leap into your imagination with more fervor than the heat and fever of a Sicilian sun. This darkly lit mystery, delivered with quick and natural dialogue, takes many twists and turns leading to the suspense of the very last page. A fine debut from a writer you will hear from again and again." -- Gianna Patriarca, author of Italian Women and Other Tragedies and All My Fallen Angelas
"The Transaction leaves us feeling like Mr. Jones in the Dylan song: something is happening, but we dont know what it is. De Angelis is on a business trip to a small provincial town in Sicily, but his business is soon undone, and we begin to wonder if hell survive and whether he cares if he does. Theres a bit of Camus and a bit of Kafka in this taut novel." -- Lee Gowan, author of The Last Cowboy
"No, its not easy to write. Its not easy especially because it seems easy. The truth is we seldom come upon narrative voices and characters that are vivid, necessary, urgent. Vivid, because they come to life in the readers imagination. Necessary, because once encountered they forever inhabit the reader. Urgent, because they have the power to shed light on lifes hidden meanings. Im often baffled by contemporary authors hunger for complacency, their self-congratulatory use of art. The great authors I loved and love bear witness to reality and describe it with a veracity that undresses us, that reveals. They dont embellish; they dont try to aggrandize their personalities and their abilities. They simply serve their vision, from a point of view that no one has ever dared before. Guglielmo DIzzia has, in my opinion, the talent of great writers. His style, his sensibility, his characters, his landscapes reach deep into our souls to stay and take root." -- Fortunato Cerlino, actor (Gomorra, Hannibal) and author of Se vuoi vivere felice
"A dark psychological mystery about an enigmatic and conflicted mans unwelcome visit to an isolated Sicilian town. Guglielmo DIzzia writes with precision about a sweaty world of grime, intrigue, and ominous questions." -- Ken Murray, author of Eulogy, a novel
"An amazingly confident narrative voice in an attention-grabbing debut novel. The landscapes and characters come vividly to life as the air of menace intensifies, page by page. Its beyond me how a story so drenched in sunlight can feel so dark, how such innocent dialogue can bear so much irony, how so few words can immerse us so deeply, so quickly in this atmosphere. It bears comparison with the major voices of European Modernism and shows extraordinary promise." -- Michel Basilières, author of Black Bird and A Free Man
