The House on Via Gemito

The modest apartment on Via Gemito smells of paint and white spirit. The furniture is pushed up against the wall to create a make-shift studio, and drying canvases must be moved off the beds each night.

Federì, a railway clerk, is convinced that, if he didn’t have a family to feed, he’d be a world-famous painter. Talented, ambitious, and frustrated, his life is marked by bitter disappointment. His long-suffering wife and their four sons bear the brunt. 

Years later, his first-born son will tell the story of a man he spent his whole life trying not to resemble. 

Narrated against the background of a Naples still marked by WWII and first published in Italy over 20 years ago, The House on Via Gemito is a masterpiece of contemporary Italian literature. 

About the Author

Domenico Starnone was born in Naples and lives in Rome. He is the author of 13 works of fiction, including First Execution (Europa, 2009); Ties (Europa, 2017) a Sunday Times Best Book of the Year; Trick (Europa, 2018), a Finalist for the 2018 National Book Award and the 2019 PEN Translation Prize; and The House on Via Gemito (Europa, 2023), winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, the Strega. It was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024.

About the Translator

Oonagh Stransky has been a translator of Italian literature for over 20 years. Some of the writers whose work she has brought into English include Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lucarelli, Giuseppe Pontiggia, and Roberto Saviano. Stransky started studying Italian at Middlebury Language Schools in 1986, got her BA in Comparative Literature from Mills College and UC Berkeley in 1989, and her MA in Italian from Columbia University in 2002. She currently lives in Italy.

Dimensions: 19.7 x 4 x 13 cm