2025 begins with news of THE SILVER BOOK
© Sophie Davidson
The news is out today in the Bookseller that Olivia Laing has written a novel called The Silver Book, which Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton and Mitzi Angel at Farrar Straus & Giroux will publish in November this year.
Taut, tense, visceral, and visually thrilling, it is a novel about love and politics, and how easy it is to be ignorantly complicit, but also non-ignorantly. It takes you vividly into 1970s Italy but makes you think about the world today.
Working on this book is going to make 2025 feel more hopeful. There is lots to look forward to amidst the trepidation - but good books and clear thinking are going to be essential.
The synopsis reads:
“It is September 1974, and two men meet by chance in Venice. One is a young English artist in panicked flight from London. The other is Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema, the designer responsible for realising the spectacular visions of Fellini and Pasolini. Donati is in Venice to produce sketches for Fellini’s Casanova, and a youthful – and beautiful – apprentice is just what he needs. He sweeps Nicholas to Rome, into the looking-glass world of Cinecittà, the studio where Casanova’s Venice will be ingeniously assembled. Then in the spring, the lovers move together to the set of Salò, Pasolini’s horrifying fable of fascism. But Nicholas has a secret and in this world of constant illusion, his real nature passes unseen. Amidst the rising political tensions of Italy’s Years of Lead, he acts as an accelerant, setting in motion a tragedy he did not intend.”
Simon Prosser said:
“What a delight to work with Olivia at last, having known them for many years and long admired their lithe literary intelligence and quicksilver imagination. The fluidity and range of their work is unique, as is the way they bring ethics and politics into all that they do – the thread which joins all of their books, including this one. The Silver Book is an exceptional novel – superbly constructed, perfectly told – which grips and excites from the very first page. Both a love story and a murder story, it is also a revelation – a journey into the hidden heart of Italian film, the set and costume departments of Rome’s Cinecittà movie studios in the politically-charged early 1970s. I love every moment of this book and feel very lucky to be publishing it.”
Olivia said:
“I’ve been an admirer of Simon Prosser’s incredible list since I first started out as a book reviewer nearly 20 years ago. From Sontag to Sebald, Ali Smith to Deborah Levy, he has been a champion of originality, experiment and beautiful writing. It’s a real honour to join Hamish Hamilton and I’m so excited to have such a perfect home for The Silver Book.”