Clandestinity

In this four-story suite, a modern master of Italian literature delves into the wonder and strangeness of the human condition. Eerie, fabulist, and elegant, each of Morescos stories features a central character at a different time of his life: childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. In these beautiful and unsettling narratives, a dreamlike logic governs a vivid and strange physical world. In Blue Room, the adolescent protagonist carries on a voyeuristic relationship with a blind old woman in a mysterious house. In The Hole, a young boy becomes fascinated by an outhouse toilet, a portal through which he observes bodily wastes, curiosities, and portents. In the title story, an act of violence deepens the nightmarish tones and mood of disorientation. And in The King, a child narratorwho may or may not be presentwitnesses a horrific visit from an exiled ruler. Full of bodily parts, functions, and desires, Morescos stories distort time and reality to summon a world of carnal immediacy and uncanny haziness. A spectral and unnerving work of art, expertly translated by Richard Dixon, Clandestinity is a testament to Morescos genius.