The Transaction: Volume 174
Guglielmo D'Izzia
(Author)
Description
A property harbouring a gruesome secret goes up for sale. Two men--perhaps, the wrong men--are shot in plain daylight. Nothing is what it seems. And matters do not turn out as anticipated. De Angelis, an inscrutable northerner, is travelling to a small town perched somewhere in Sicily's hinterland to negotiate a real estate transaction, only to find himself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy. While en route, the train he's on mysteriously breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a squalid whistle stop. What follows is a web of unsettling events, involving child prostitution and brazen killings, leading to the abrupt demise of his business deal. But De Angelis is undeterred and intent on discovering what went wrong with his transaction. As he embarks on a reckless sleuthing, an unexpected turn of events sends him into a tailspin. At the heart of it is an alluring blue-eyed girl, Marinella. The chance encounter with the eleven-year-old traps him in a psychological and moral cul-de-sac, leaving him no choice but to confront the type of man he really is. Told in a cinematic, darkly humorous genre-bending prose, The Transaction traces De Angelis' Kafkaesque descent into deviancy.
Product Details
Price
$20.00
$18.60
Publisher
Guernica Editions
Publish Date
May 01, 2020
Pages
236
Dimensions
5.0 X 8.0 X 0.6 inches | 0.6 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781771834544
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About the Author
Guglielmo D'Izzia was born and raised in Sicily. He's an actor, a writer, and a gourmand. His artistic pursuits have led him to some of the greatest cities in the world: Rome, New York City, and eventually Toronto, where he now resides. He's a proud graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. The Transaction, his debut novel, won the 2016 Marina Nemat Award. He's currently working on his second novel.
Reviews
"An amazingly confident narrative voice in an attention-grabbing debut novel. The landscapes and characters come vividly to life as the air of menace intensifies, page by page. It's beyond me how a story so drenched in sunlight can feel so dark, how such innocent dialogue can bear so much irony, how so few words can immerse us so deeply, so quickly in this atmosphere. It bears comparison with the major voices of European Modernism and shows extraordinary promise." --Michel Basilières, Author of Black Bird and A Free Man
"The Transaction leaves us feeling like Mr. Jones in the Dylan song: something is happening, but we don't know what it is. De Angelis is on a business trip to a small provincial town in Sicily, but his business is soon undone, and we begin to wonder if he'll survive and whether he cares if he does. There's a bit of Camus and a bit of Kafka in this taut novel." --Lee Gowan, author of The Last Cowboy
"No, it's not easy to write. It's not easy especially because it seems easy. The truth is we seldom come upon narrative voices and characters that are vivid, necessary, urgent. Vivid, because they come to life in the reader's imagination. Necessary, because once encountered they forever inhabit the reader. Urgent, because they have the power to shed light on life's hidden meanings. I'm often baffled by contemporary authors' hunger for complacency, their self-congratulatory use of art. The great authors I loved and love bear witness to reality and describe it with a veracity that undresses us, that reveals. They don't embellish; they don't try to aggrandize their personalities and their abilities. They simply serve their vision, from a point of view that no one has ever dared before. Guglielmo D'Izzia has, in my opinion, the talent of great writers. His style, his sensibility, his characters, his landscapes reach deep into our souls to stay and take root." --Fortunato Cerlino, Actor (Gomorra, Hannibal) and author of Se vuoi vivere felice
"A dark psychological mystery about an enigmatic and conflicted man's unwelcome visit to an isolated Sicilian town. Guglielmo D'Izzia writes with precision about a sweaty world of grime, intrigue, and ominous questions." --Ken Murray, author of Eulogy, a novel
"Absurd in all the right ways, The Transaction reads almost like what Kafka would have written if he'd been asked to do a remake of Scorsese's After Hours but set in Sicily and over the course of a week instead of a night ... A strange and dynamic and entertaining debut." --Brian Evenson, Guggenheim Fellow and author of A Collapse of Horses
"Mysterious, stark and cinematic, Guglielmo D'Izzia's debut novel The Transaction takes the reader on an array of escalating and disturbing encounters. Perception is everything in the Sicilian town of Figallia where an out-of-town businessman from 'the north' becomes immersed in small-town life and its history of menace. Rife with dark undercurrents like a Giorgio de Chirico painting, the surface is not what it seems. Eerily detailed and atmospheric, this tightly controlled narrative brims with tension." --Catherine Graham, Author of Quarry and The Celery Forest
"Guglielmo D'Izzia's first novel is a dish seasoned with mystery, suspense, sensuality and Sicily. A slow train ride, an unscheduled stop in a southern Italian town inhabited by a collection of unpredictable characters who leap into your imagination with more fervor than the heat and fever of a Sicilian sun. This darkly lit mystery, delivered with quick and natural dialogue, takes many twists and turns leading to the suspense of the very last page. A fine debut from a writer you will hear from again and again." --Gianna Patriarca, author of Italian Women and Other Tragedies and All My Fallen Angelas
"The book's climax as well as it's ending is particularly noteworthy... If your recent reading material needs a change of pace, I recommend The Transaction. I'm adding it to the 2020 longlist in the Best First Book (Fiction) category for "The Very Best!" Book Awards." --James M Fisher, Miramichi Reader "The Transaction is a smart book. One that knows exactly what it is and what it's trying to say ... It's a cerebral pleasure more than it is a visceral one ... one of these books that'll reveal to you what kind of reader you are. " --Benoit Lelievre, Dead End Follies
"The Transaction leaves us feeling like Mr. Jones in the Dylan song: something is happening, but we don't know what it is. De Angelis is on a business trip to a small provincial town in Sicily, but his business is soon undone, and we begin to wonder if he'll survive and whether he cares if he does. There's a bit of Camus and a bit of Kafka in this taut novel." --Lee Gowan, author of The Last Cowboy
"No, it's not easy to write. It's not easy especially because it seems easy. The truth is we seldom come upon narrative voices and characters that are vivid, necessary, urgent. Vivid, because they come to life in the reader's imagination. Necessary, because once encountered they forever inhabit the reader. Urgent, because they have the power to shed light on life's hidden meanings. I'm often baffled by contemporary authors' hunger for complacency, their self-congratulatory use of art. The great authors I loved and love bear witness to reality and describe it with a veracity that undresses us, that reveals. They don't embellish; they don't try to aggrandize their personalities and their abilities. They simply serve their vision, from a point of view that no one has ever dared before. Guglielmo D'Izzia has, in my opinion, the talent of great writers. His style, his sensibility, his characters, his landscapes reach deep into our souls to stay and take root." --Fortunato Cerlino, Actor (Gomorra, Hannibal) and author of Se vuoi vivere felice
"A dark psychological mystery about an enigmatic and conflicted man's unwelcome visit to an isolated Sicilian town. Guglielmo D'Izzia writes with precision about a sweaty world of grime, intrigue, and ominous questions." --Ken Murray, author of Eulogy, a novel
"Absurd in all the right ways, The Transaction reads almost like what Kafka would have written if he'd been asked to do a remake of Scorsese's After Hours but set in Sicily and over the course of a week instead of a night ... A strange and dynamic and entertaining debut." --Brian Evenson, Guggenheim Fellow and author of A Collapse of Horses
"Mysterious, stark and cinematic, Guglielmo D'Izzia's debut novel The Transaction takes the reader on an array of escalating and disturbing encounters. Perception is everything in the Sicilian town of Figallia where an out-of-town businessman from 'the north' becomes immersed in small-town life and its history of menace. Rife with dark undercurrents like a Giorgio de Chirico painting, the surface is not what it seems. Eerily detailed and atmospheric, this tightly controlled narrative brims with tension." --Catherine Graham, Author of Quarry and The Celery Forest
"Guglielmo D'Izzia's first novel is a dish seasoned with mystery, suspense, sensuality and Sicily. A slow train ride, an unscheduled stop in a southern Italian town inhabited by a collection of unpredictable characters who leap into your imagination with more fervor than the heat and fever of a Sicilian sun. This darkly lit mystery, delivered with quick and natural dialogue, takes many twists and turns leading to the suspense of the very last page. A fine debut from a writer you will hear from again and again." --Gianna Patriarca, author of Italian Women and Other Tragedies and All My Fallen Angelas
"The book's climax as well as it's ending is particularly noteworthy... If your recent reading material needs a change of pace, I recommend The Transaction. I'm adding it to the 2020 longlist in the Best First Book (Fiction) category for "The Very Best!" Book Awards." --James M Fisher, Miramichi Reader "The Transaction is a smart book. One that knows exactly what it is and what it's trying to say ... It's a cerebral pleasure more than it is a visceral one ... one of these books that'll reveal to you what kind of reader you are. " --Benoit Lelievre, Dead End Follies
