Harare Review of Books

240 pages.

First published Jan 2, 2024 (And Other Stories)

Fiction/Gothic Fantasy.

Sometimes you finish a book and you feel shifted from where you were before. Haunted, even. That’s the feeling I got from Verdigris. I wasn’t immediately enamoured, I must say. Some kid somewhere in Italy who’s into monsters? And thinks his grandparents’ gardener is one? And describes him in really disgusting and body horroresque ways? I didn’t think I’d be into it at all, but I persevered. I also confess to a lot of eye-rolling initially, struggling to suspend my disbelief at the precociousness of this child, at his powers of deduction to rival even the great Sherlock. But you know what? Somewhere in the middle, skeletons fell out of a metaphorical closet and also came up out of the ground, and then there were czarists and Nazis and French soldiers and the memorable and mysterious Carmen, and our monster began to disintegrate, and I was gripped. Without spoiling it for you, the end of the novel is one of the best I have ever read. I’m still getting chills thinking about it.

If you read Flowers for Algernon, you’ll appreciate Mari’s treatment of Felice, our monster. I would like, however, to particularly commend the work of the translator, Brian Robert Moore. In the translator’s note at the end of the book, he explains how he came up with Felice’s distinctive idiolect, and how it works in the novel. It had struck (and annoyed) me how his dialect removed him from Italy, the location of the novel, and it took me many pages to re-suspend my disbelief and get back into the story. (I also generally avoid novels with dialect, but that’s another story). However, Moore explains why and how Felice speaking in dialect was important to the translated novel, and by the time the reader gets to the end of the novel—the climax—not only is Felice legible, but his idiolect is put into context. Amazing work.

In short, a wonderful read for lovers of gothic fantasy, but Verdigris will also be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good story. Well worth your time.

Thank you to And Other Stories and to Edelweiss for the DRC.

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