The House of Gazes

(Paperback)

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Description

Daniele is a young poet plagued by an unknown darkness, "an invisible disease of the heart, or of the mind." He refuses to conform to society's expectations-finding a job, starting a family-yet he struggles to define a path of his own and find a sense of purpose in life.

In a desperate attempt to pull himself out of a dangerous spiral of emptiness and self-destruction, Daniele accepts a job at a paediatric hospital in Rome, the Bambino Gesu, where he'll work with sick children, many of them terminally ill. In the "house of gazes," that is, the hospital, through his interactions with patients and co-workers, and forced to confront pain in some of its most heartbreaking forms, Daniele will slowly start to look at life with new eyes and learn to accept it in all its brutality and beauty.

Writing with the evocative power and sharp focus of a poet, Mencarelli tells a raw and moving story of self-discovery, renewal, and liberation achieved through solidarity and compassion, a story closely inspired by the events of his own life.

Reviews

'"When a poet who has a strong story to tell decides to write a novel, the result is a masterpiece."' - Vanity Fair

'"An evocative work of autofiction...With its bracing view of the hero's interior world, this meditative novel viscerally excoriates the failings of his treatment."' - Publishers Weekly on Everything Calls for Salvation

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Author Bio

Daniele Mencarelli is a poet and author. Born in Rome in 1974, he now lives in Ariccia, Italy. He is a regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines. Everything Calls for Salvation, his second novel, won the 2020 Youth Strega Prize. Octavian MacEwen is a translator based in Britain. He studied Italian at the universities of Edinburgh and Bologna, and holds a Masters Degree in Translation Studies from Durham University.