The House on Via Gemito

<p><strong>Longlisted for the INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024</strong></p><p><strong>Winner of the STREGA PRIZE</strong></p> <p><strong>LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024</strong></p><p><strong>“Starnone uses languages the way a great painter works with colour conjuring the illusion of three dimensions from a blank flat surface.” —Jhumpa Lahiri </strong></p><p><strong>“One of Italy’s most accomplished novelists.” —<em>The Guardian </em></strong></p><p><strong>“Masterly.” —<em>Times Literary Supplement </em></strong></p><p>The modest apartment on Via Gemito smells of paint and white spirit. The furniture is pushed up against the wall to create a make-shift studio and drying canvases must be moved off the beds each night.</p><p>Federì a railway clerk is convinced that if he didn’t have a family to feed he’d be a world-famous painter. Talented ambitious and frustrated his life is marked by bitter disappointment. His long-suffering wife and their four sons bear the brunt. </p><p>Years later his first-born son will tell the story of a man he spent his whole life trying not to resemble. </p><p>Narrated against the background of a Naples still marked by WWII and first published in Italy over 20 years ago <em>The House on Via Gemito</em> is a masterpiece of contemporary Italian literature. </p> <p><strong>Key Selling Points</strong></p><p>• Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024 winner of the Strega Prize a <em>New York Times</em> Editor’s Choice</p><p>• Critically acclaimed novelist </p><p><strong>Target readership</strong></p><p>• For readers of Elena Ferrante. </p><p>• For fans of <em>Gilead</em> by Marilynne Robinson and <em>The Power the Dog</em> by Thomas Savage.</p> Starnone uses languages the way a great painter works with colour conjuring the illusion of three dimensions from a blank flat surface. <p>Masterly... Twenty-three years is a long time to wait for a book this good but here it is at last.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> Starnone packs a huge amount into a small compass. [Starnone] portrays unflinchingly the violence physical and verbal that can erupt within the closest relationships. <p>“A searching work of autofiction about a family in postwar Naples.”</p> 450 pages of vivid fluid richly detailed drama tormented and hilarious. <p>“A complex family narrative and a masterpiece on the elusive nature of truth.”</p> <p>“In Starnone’s novels releasing yourself from whatever bitterness consumed your parents is an ultimately futile pursuit.”</p> “Every character…is a full-fledged human being filled with desire regret resentment bitterness and hope. At the same time the Neapolitan setting comes equally alive… Starnone it seems can do no wrong. A complexly structured masterpiece.” “A masterpiece.” “Domenico Starnone’s most important book . . . robust flawlessly structured and luminously written.” “A cross-section of Neapolitan life and a life-story expertly told.”