The Mayor's Tongue
Nathaniel Rich
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 159448368X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
One of the most original, dazzling, and critically acclaimed debut novels this year.
In this debut novel, hailed by Stephen King as ?terrifying, touching, and wildly funny,? the stories of two strangers, Eugene Brentani and Mr. Schmitz, interweave. What unfolds is a bold reinvention of storytelling in which Eugene, a devotee of the reclusive and monstrous author, Constance Eakins, and Mr. Schmitz, who has been receiving ominous letters from an old friend, embark from New York for Italy, where the line between imagination and reality begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own.
the high-wind season, the cinciuts rush down from the Carso, rattling through the forests above the city. It's a nursery tale told to children to make them stay inside during the bora, so they don't get hurt outside. "The only talisman against the cinciut is a dead sparrow. There's a line in Proverbs that reads: Like a fluttering sparrow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest. So if you throw a sparrow at a cinciut, you're protected. It's just a children's game, nothing to take seriously."
lose. That's what Eugene told himself anyway. But just then a high, reedy voice rang out from behind the urchin gang. At first, Eugene couldn't see who it was, since the owner of the voice was shorter than the children. Frank Lang pushed through the children's ranks, waving his cane like a hatchet, and turned to face them in a trembling rage. The kids spat at Eugene and then, unhurriedly, began to retreat, laughing at the odd little man, sticking out their tongues and lifting up their unscrubbed
that a plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes has been left cooling for him at the kitchen table. He calls for his wife, but she has already gone to bed. 8 Eugene watched from the passenger seat, his fist white from squeezing the window handle, as Lang fidgeted with the clutch and kept peeking over the wheel so that he could see the road ahead. Lang was navigating his Cinquecento up a hill so steep that it seemed the car would peel back from the asphalt and backflip down the Carso. He
mile." "I was just observing the flowers," replied Keftir, then he mumbled something under his breath. "What did you say?" asked Enzo, who had been staring off into the rock crevice ahead of him. "Nothing," said Keftir. Though Eugene had heard him perfectly. The old man had said, "Will I never leave this godforsaken place?" Keftir balled up his free hand and rubbed his eyes with the back of his fist. "We'll lead you back," said Enzo. "But first let me introduce you to my friend, Eugene."
with negative results. Ternova joins a growing list of Carsican villages that have been abandoned in recent years, as younger generations head to the city in search of a higher standard of living and better opportunities for prosperity. Ternova was best known for its small cathedral, the San Giusto di Trieste, celebrated for its checkered marble piazza, which overlooks the Carso plateau and the Adriatic Sea. High points of Ternova's history included: a mention of the village by the great