Hannah’s Pick of the Week: The Silver Book by Olivia Laing

“In August, when every self-respecting Roman left the city, he stayed behind and worked out the formulas for the dyes he will use for three thousand costumes, each one of them hand-tailored. Vats of onion skin and marigold, woad and madder. If Federico is the maestro, he is the magician, stirring his cauldron in the back room.”

Olivia Laing, The Silver Book, pg. 10

The lingering heat of an Italian summer spins almost lackadaisically around the fervent rushing of a colorful film studio.  In Venice, two men meet — lovers, compatriots, mentor and apprentice, Danilo and Nicholas. Nicholas has run from his past in London, and Danilo Donati is more than willing to whisk the young artist off to Rome, off to the vibrant and auteur world of Cinecittà Studios where they are to rub shoulders with film giants Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is September 1974, we are deep in Italy’s turbulent Years of Lead, and Nicholas has more to do with an incoming tragedy than he realizes.

Laing, using the historical clues left to them, builds a world of light and sound, of breathtaking beauty and of immense violence as they build a love story with a true crime bend. The novel in itself is a love letter to cinema and care, carved in marble and reflected in the intimacies of Nicholas, who has secrets to hide, and Danilo Donati, the real-life “secret magician of Italian Cinema” (as the author refers to him as).

Though only 248 pages (I wish it was longer, with more fleshing out of the politic), Laing brings you along, glimpse by glimpse, into a period of intense creative ardor, and also destruction in which we all take part. Their prose is delicious, and the audiobook narration of the book (done by Ben Cura) is a perfect compliment to bring you into the time period. For those who are unfamiliar with any of the key players, this book is sure to spark going down some internet rabbit holes (we offer Fellini films at this very library).  The Silver Book is a good next read following The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf by Isa Arsén or Olivia Laing’s previous work, especially their essays.