The House on Via Gemito: Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024

Longlisted for the INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024Winner of the STREGA PRIZE “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.” "Starnone packs a huge amount into a small compass."

“A searching work of autofiction about a family in postwar Naples.”

"450 pages of vivid, fluid, richly detailed drama, tormented and hilarious."

“A complex family narrative and a masterpiece on the elusive nature of truth.”

"Starnone uses languages the way a great painter works with colour, conjuring the illusion of three dimensions from a blank flat surface."

"Masterly... Twenty-three years is a long time to wait for a book this good, but here it is at last."

 

"[Starnone] portrays unflinchingly the violence, physical and verbal, that can erupt within the closest relationships."

“In Starnone’s novels, releasing yourself from whatever bitterness consumed your parents is an ultimately futile pursuit.”

“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.”

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2024

“Starnone uses languages the way a great painter works with colour, conjuring the illusion of three dimensions from a blank flat surface.” —Jhumpa Lahiri

“One of Italy’s most accomplished novelists.” —The Guardian 

“Masterly.” —Times Literary Supplement 

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.

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. 

Years later, his first-born son will tell the story of a man he spent his whole life trying not to resemble. 

Narrated against the background of a Naples still marked by WWII and first published in Italy over 20 years ago, The House on Via Gemito is a masterpiece of contemporary Italian literature. 

• | Author: Domenico Starnone, Oonagh Stransky
• | Publisher: Europa Editions (UK) Ltd
• | Publication Date: Mar 21, 2024
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781787705463
• | ISBN-10: 1787705463