I slowly got up and stood in front of Matilde. She raised her eyes to me.
“I’m going,” I said. “Forgive me, but I must leave. I’m going down to the dock for the boat.”
Ten minutes later I left the little dock of the Villa Cleofe in the Tinca. It was midday, and I decided to eat at Cavallini’s Vittoria.
As I passed by the villa, I looked up at the terrace. Matilde had gone in. The only things visible between the iron bars of the baulstrade were the two wicker armchairs with their red headrests, the fringe on the cushions rustling in the wind.
I moored the boat in the harbor and climbed up to the road. Not a soul was about. The large balloons of trees spilling out from the gardens stood still under the sun. A hornet, stunned by the midday silence that had fallen over the lake and the houses, hummed through the pollen-laden air. I crossed over and stepped into the restaurant. I greeted Cavallini, who seemed to be waiting for me.
“It’s been some time since I’ve had the pleasure of serving you!” he said.
“True. Since one evening in July last year. I was coming here to eat when I made the acquaintance of Signor Orimbelli at the port. The rest you know better than I do.”
He seated me and remained thoughtful, the palms of his hands resting on my table. After a few moments, he brought his curly head close to mine and asked, “But now … are you coming back or are you on your way?”
“I’m leaving,” I replied. “And it will be difficult for me to come back. I’m selling the boat. Getting off the lake.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said quietly, “but I understand.”
Then, looking around like a hawker flogging his goods, he began in a loud voice, “Today we have macaroni pie, a timbale of rice alla finanziera, cutlet alla milanese, ribs and fresh fish …”
When I left an hour later, Cavallini came to say good-bye at the harbor wall.
I moved swiftly toward the center of the lake, turning my back to the shore until, the inverna rising, I steered the prow toward the top of the lake and headed for my home port.
As soon as the Tinca began to pick up speed, I looked back toward the coast. I noted one villa after another, separated by their gardens: the Poss, the Ceriana, the Miralba, the Thea and then the Villa Cleofe, her spectral face veiled by the heat. My gaze moved on to the pasha’s villa and the more modest one belonging to Massimo d’Azeglio. The wind shifted ninety degrees, and between Cannero and the mouth of Tresa, I sailed into home waters for the last time.
PIERO CHIARA (1913–1986) was a leading Italian author of the 20th century who won over a dozen literary prizes and whose work is marked by psychological depth, melancholy humor and a grasp of the essence of everyday life. The Bishop’s Bedroom is the most celebrated of his many acclaimed novels.
JILL FOULSTON is the translator of novels by Erri de Luca, Augusto de Angelis and Piero Chiara. She lives in London.
THE 6:41 TO PARIS
BY JEAN-PHILIPPE BLONDEL
Cécile, a stylish 47-year-old, has spent the weekend visiting her parents outside Paris. By Monday morning, she’s exhausted. These trips back home are stressful and she settles into a train compartment with an empty seat beside her. But it’s soon occupied by a man she recognizes as Philippe Leduc, with whom she had a passionate affair that ended in her brutal humiliation 30 years ago. In the fraught hour and a half that ensues, Cécile and Philippe hurtle towards the French capital in a psychological thriller about the pain and promise of past romance.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/the-641-to-paris/
OBLIVION
BY SERGEI LEBEDEV
In one of the first 21st century Russian novels to probe the legacy of the Soviet prison camp system, a young man travels to the vast wastelands of the Far North to uncover the truth about a shadowy neighbor who saved his life, and whom he knows only as Grandfather II. Emerging from today’s Russia, where the ills of the past are being forcefully erased from public memory, this masterful novel represents an epic literary attempt to rescue history from the brink of oblivion.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/oblivion/
THE YEAR OF THE COMET
BY SERGEI LEBEDEV
A story of a Russian boyhood and coming of age as the Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse. Lebedev depicts a vast empire coming apart at the seams, transforming a very public moment into something tender and personal, and writes with stunning beauty and shattering insight about childhood and the growing consciousness of a boy in the world.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/year-of-the-comet/
WHAT’S LEFT OF THE NIGHT
BY ERSI SOTIROPOULOS
Constantine Cavafy arrives in Paris in 1897 on a trip that will deeply shape his future and push him toward his poetic inclination. With this lyrical novel, tinged with an hallucinatory eroticism that unfolds over three unforgettable days, celebrated Greek author Ersi Sotiropoulos depicts Cavafy in the midst of a journey of self-discovery across a continent on the brink of massive change. A stunning portrait of a budding author—before he became C.P. Cavafy, one of the 20th century’s greatest poets—that illuminates the complex relationship of art, life, and the erotic desires that trigger creativity.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/whats-left-night/
AND THE BRIDE CLOSED THE DOOR
BY RONIT MATALON
A young bride shuts herself up in a bedroom on her wedding day, refusing to get married. In this moving and humorous look at contemporary Israel and the chaotic ups and downs of love everywhere, her family gathers outside the locked door, not knowing what to do. Is this merely a case of cold feet? A feminist statement? This provocative and highly entertaining novel lingers long after its final page.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/and-the-bride-closed-the-door/
A VERY FRENCH CHRISTMAS
A continuation of the very popular Very Christmas Series, this collection brings together the best French Christmas stories of all time in an elegant and vibrant collection featuring classics by Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, plus stories by the esteemed twentieth century author Irène Némirovsky and contemporary writers Dominique Fabre and Jean-Philippe Blondel. With a holiday spirit conveyed through sparkling Paris streets, opulent feasts, wandering orphans, flickering desire, and more than a little wine, this collection proves that the French have mastered Christmas.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/a-very-french-christmas/
THE EYE
BY PHILIPPE COSTAMAGNA
It’s a rare and secret profession, comprising a few dozen people around the world equipped with a mysterious mixture of knowledge and innate sensibility. Summoned to Swiss bank vaults, Fifth Avenue apartments, and Tokyo storerooms, they are entrusted by collectors, dealers, and museums to decide if a coveted picture is real or fake and to determine if it was painted by Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael. The Eye lifts the veil on the rarified world of connoisseurs devoted to the authentication and discovery of Old Master artworks.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/the-eye/
THE ANIMAL GAZER
BY EDGARDO FRANZOSINI
A hypnotic novel inspired by the strange and fascinating life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, brother of the fabled automaker. Bugatti obsessively observes and sculpts the baboons, giraffes, and panthers in European zoos, finding empathy with their plight and identifying with their life in captivity. Rembrandt Bugatti’s work, now being rediscovered, is displayed in major art museums around the world and routinely fetches large sums at auction. Edgardo Franzosini recreates the young artist’s life with intense lyricism, passion, and sensitivity.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/the-animal-gazer/
ALLMEN AND THE DRAGONFLIES
BY MARTIN SUTER
Johann Friedrich von Allmen has exhausted his family fortune by living in Old World grandeur despite present-day financial constraints. Forced to downscale, Allmen inhabits the garden house of his former Zurich estate, attended by his Guatemalan butler, Carlo
s. This is the first of a series of humorous, fast-paced detective novels devoted to a memorable gentleman thief. A thrilling art heist escapade infused with European high culture and luxury that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of human nature.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/allmen-and-the-dragonflies/
THE MADELEINE PROJECT
BY CLARA BEAUDOUX
A young woman moves into a Paris apartment and discovers a storage room filled with the belongings of the previous owner, a certain Madeleine who died in her late nineties, and whose treasured possessions nobody seems to want. In an audacious act of journalism driven by personal curiosity and humane tenderness, Clara Beaudoux embarks on The Madeleine Project, documenting what she finds on Twitter with text and photographs, introducing the world to an unsung 20th century figure.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/the-madeleine-project/
ADUA
BY IGIABA SCEGO
Adua, an immigrant from Somalia to Italy, has lived in Rome for nearly forty years. She came seeking freedom from a strict father and an oppressive regime, but her dreams of film stardom ended in shame. Now that the civil war in Somalia is over, her homeland calls her. She must decide whether to return and reclaim her inheritance, but also how to take charge of her own story and build a future.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/adua/
IF VENICE DIES
BY SALVATORE SETTIS
Internationally renowned art historian Salvatore Settis ignites a new debate about the Pearl of the Adriatic and cultural patrimony at large. In this fiery blend of history and cultural analysis, Settis argues that “hit-and-run” visitors are turning Venice and other landmark urban settings into shopping malls and theme parks. This is a passionate plea to secure the soul of Venice, written with consummate authority, wide-ranging erudition and élan.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/if-venice-dies/
THE MADONNA OF NOTRE DAME
BY ALEXIS RAGOUGNEAU
Fifty thousand people jam into Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. The next morning, a beautiful young woman clothed in white kneels at prayer in a cathedral side chapel. But when someone accidentally bumps against her, her body collapses. She has been murdered. This thrilling novel illuminates shadowy corners of the world’s most famous cathedral, shedding light on good and evil with suspense, compassion and wry humor.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/madonna-notre-dame/
THE LAST WEYNFELDT
BY MARTIN SUTER
Adrian Weynfeldt is an art expert in an international auction house, a bachelor in his mid-fifties living in a grand Zurich apartment filled with costly paintings and antiques. Always correct and well-mannered, he’s given up on love until one night—entirely out of character for him—Weynfeldt decides to take home a ravishing but unaccountable young woman and gets embroiled in an art forgery scheme that threatens his buttoned up existence. This refined page-turner moves behind elegant bourgeois facades into darker recesses of the heart.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/the-last-weynfeldt/
MOVING THE PALACE
BY CHARIF MAJDALANI
A young Lebanese adventurer explores the wilds of Africa, encountering an eccentric English colonel in Sudan and enlisting in his service. In this lush chronicle of far-flung adventure, the military recruit crosses paths with a compatriot who has dismantled a sumptuous palace and is transporting it across the continent on a camel caravan. This is a captivating modern-day Odyssey in the tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/moving-the-palace/
EXPOSED
BY JEAN-PHILIPPE BLONDEL
A dangerous intimacy emerges between a French teacher and a former student who has achieved art world celebrity. The painting of a portrait upturns both their lives. Jean-Philippe Blondel, author of the bestselling novel The 6:41 to Paris, evokes an intimacy of dangerous intensity in a stunning tale about aging, regret and moving ahead into the future.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/exposed/
SLEEPLESS NIGHT
BY MARGRIET DE MOOR
A woman gets up in the middle of a wintry night and starts baking a Bundt cake while her lover sleeps upstairs. When it’s time for her to take the cake out of the oven, we have read a tale of romance and death. The narrator of this novel was widowed years ago and is trying to find new passion. But the memory of her deceased husband and a shameful incident still holds her in its grasp. Why did he do it?
http://newvesselpress.com/books/sleepless-night
GUYS LIKE ME
BY DOMINIQUE FABRE
Dominique Fabre, born in Paris and a lifelong resident of the city, exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift. He’s looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/guys-like/
ANIMAL INTERNET
BY ALEXANDER PSCHERA
Some 50,000 creatures around the globe— including whales, leopards, flamingoes, bats and snails—are being equipped with digital tracking devices. The data gathered and studied by major scientific institutes about their behavior will warn us about tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but also radically transform our relationship to the natural world. Contrary to pessimistic fears, author Alexander Pschera sees the Internet as creating a historic opportunity for a new dialogue between man and nature.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/animal-internet/
KILLING AUNTIE
BY ANDRZEJ BURSA
A young university student named Jurek, with no particular ambitions or talents, finds himself with nothing to do. After his doting aunt asks the young man to perform a small chore, he decides to kill her for no good reason other than, perhaps, boredom. This short comedic masterpiece combines elements of Dostoevsky, Sartre, Kafka, and Heller, coming together to produce an unforgettable tale of murder and—just maybe—redemption.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/killing-auntie/
I CALLED HIM NECKTIE
BY MILENA MICHIKO FLAšAR
Twenty-year-old Taguchi Hiro has spent the last two years of his life living as a hikikomori—a shut-in who never leaves his room and has no human interaction—in his parents’ home in Tokyo. As Hiro tentatively decides to reenter the world, he spends his days observing life from a park bench. Gradually he makes friends with Ohara Tetsu, a salaryman who has lost his job. The two discover in their sadness a common bond. This beautiful novel is moving, unforgettable, and full of surprises.
http://newvesselpress.com/books/called-necktie/
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