The Transaction [Paperback]

 

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.

"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, poet and author of All My Fallen Angelas & Italian Women and Other Tragedies

"D'Izzia follows in the footstepl““