Impressions: 'Between Two Seas' by Carmine Abate
This is the second novel I’ve read from this author and one of two that are available in English translation. It is a shame that there are only two because Carmine Abate is a wonderful writer. In Between Two Seas the author’s prose continues to show his signature lyrical, poetic style.
The story is, as in his other novel, set in Abate’s native Calabria. A well known German photographer travels through southern Italy seeking to take advantage of its scenic beauty to incorporate into his work. Along the way he meets Giorgio Bellusci a man whose goal in life is to restore the south’s most famous inn the Fondaco del Fico, well known for once harboring brigands during the Italian unification as well as it’s most famous guest, the writer Alexandre Dumas during his travels through Italy. Restoring the inn slowly becomes a dangerous obsession for Giorgio which will eventually leave blood on his hands and test the friendship between himself and the photographer, Hans Heumann. The story is told from the point of view of Giorgio’s grandson, Florian, who not only recounts his grandfather’s quest to restore the inn, but of his family and childhood in the small town of Roccalba, which lies between the Ioanian and Tyrehnian seas.
It is a wonderful novel about a complex family history and how chance meeting can somehow effect the lives of so many different people. It is also an example of how family history can be closely intertwined with national and cultural history, sometimes with tragic consequences. Abate’s prose style moves the story along with an almost child-like wonder and his description of the Calabrian landscape brings the reader right there along with him. You can smell the orange blossoms, feel the thistles, and hear the sounds of the two seas which lies at either end of the town, allowing the reader, who most likely never been to such an out of the way place to experience it as the characters do.
It’s a shame that all of Abate’s books are not yet available in translation. He is truly one gifted writer and those outside Italy are missing out on one of the more memorable voices in contemporary literature.
Translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar
Between Two Seas is available here.