Domenico Starnone

In this novel "about ambition, family, and old-age ... [a] grandfather and grandson match wits as [the elder] heads toward a reckoning with his own ambitions and life choices"--Amazon.com.

Trick

Dana Kraft

I found myself comparing this book to Ties, which I really enjoyed. For me, it doesn't compare well. There are some interesting and profound passages as the main character has some moments of self-reflection, but they're few and far between. I can understand how the book is well written and how the climax presents an interesting perspective on the theme of how we struggle with our different personas and all the paths we didn't take in our lives. That said, I just didn't really care about the rumination of the main character.

Giovanni Garcia-Fenech 

Loved the book, but not the Appendix - it was anticlimactic and the illustrations were pretty lousy.

Clare B

Imagine a duel. A face-off between a man and a boy. Sharp, succinct storytelling and breathtaking prose combine in this new novel by the author of Ties, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Kirkus Reviews and Sunday Times Best Book of the Year. Trick is a stylish drama about ambition, family, and old-age that goes beyond the ordinary and predictable. Imagine a duel between two men. One, Daniele Mallarico, is a successful illustrator who, in the twilight of his years, feels that his reputation and his artistic prowess are fading. The other, Mario, is Daniele’s four-year-old grandson. Daniele has been living in a cold northern city for years, in virtual solitude, focusing obsessively on his work, when his daughter asks if he would come to Naples for a few days and babysit Mario while she and her husband attend a conference. Shut inside his childhood home—an apartment in the center of Naples that is filled with the ghosts of Mallarico’s past—grandfather and grandson match wits as Daniele heads toward a reckoning with his own ambitions and life choices. Outside the apartment, pulses Naples, a wily, violent, and passionate city whose influence can never be shaken. Trick is a gripping, brilliantly devised drama, “an extremely playful literary composition,” as Jhumpa Lahiri describes it in her introduction, by the Strega Prize-winning novelist whom many consider to be one of Italy’s greatest living writers.