John Domini

A Tomb on the Periphery John Domini 1st edition

This novel a mix of crime, ghost story and portrait of the protagonist continues Domini's tales in contemporary Southern Italy, in the manner of his last novel "Earthquake I. D." When an ancient grave on the fringes of Naples comes unexpectedly to light, an exquisite piece of funeral decoration leaves the twenty-something Fabbrizio suspended between his best impulses and his worst. On the one hand he wants to help his family, strapped for cashand to do right by his gift as a goldsmith. But on the other hand, Fabbrizio risks seduction by an array of dubious figures. Among these is an American femme fatale with a suspiciously close knowledge about Southern Italian criminal life -- the vicious local Mafia known as the Camorra. Also involved, soon enough, are a family of African boat people and the occasional visit from a ghost. All this and more comes together in brief, brutal, yet ultimately redemptive new novel. "A Tomb on the Periphery" deepens and intensifies John Domini s vision of contemporary Italy, revisiting the world of last year s highly-praised "Earthquake I. D.", nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and praised by Richard Ford. Yet this story stands entirely on its own, taking a radically different view of its home ground, discovering both fresh heartbreak and new possibility. The bad boy of "Tomb" may at first call to mind the amoral Ripley of Patricia Highsmith, and after that he tumbles through false panels enough for a story by Orhan Pamuk, but in the end he hammers out his own durable moral gold.