In this four-story suite, a modern master of Italian literature delves
into the wonder and strangeness of the human condition.
Eerie, fabulist, and elegant, each of Moresco's stories features a
central character at a different time of his life: childhood,
adolescence, and young adulthood. In these beautiful and unsettling
narratives, a dreamlike logic governs a vivid and strange physical
world. In "Blue Room," the adolescent protagonist carries on a
voyeuristic relationship with a blind old woman in a mysterious house.
In "The Hole," a young boy becomes fascinated by an outhouse toilet, a
portal through which he observes bodily wastes, curiosities, and
portents. In the title story, an act of violence deepens the nightmarish
tones and mood of disorientation. And in "The King," a child
narrator-who may or may not be present--witnesses a horrific visit from
an exiled ruler.
Full of bodily parts, functions, and desires, Moresco's stories distort
time and reality to summon a world of carnal immediacy and uncanny
haziness. A spectral and unnerving work of art, expertly translated by
Richard Dixon, Clandestinity is a testament to Moresco's genius.