A Devil Comes to Town - by Paolo Maurensig (Paperback)

About the Book

"First published as Il diavolo nel cassetto in Italy in 2018 by Einaudi."--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

"A Devil Comes to Town is a brilliant form of torture...a huge amount of fun." --Lisa Grgas for The Literary Review

A small Swiss village full of aspiring writers + The devil in the form of a hot-shot publisher = An international bestseller by the author of the Italian literary sensation The Luneburg Variation

Wild rabies runs rampant through the woods. The foxes are gaining ground, boldly making their way into the village. In Dichtersruhe, an insular yet charming haven stifled by the Swiss mountains, these omens go unnoticed by all but the new parish priest. The residents have other things on their mind: Literature. Everyone's a writer--the nights are alive with reworked manuscripts. So when the devil turns up in a black car claiming to be a hot-shot publisher, unsatisfied authorial desires are unleashed and the village's former harmony is shattered. Taut with foreboding and Gothic suspense, Paolo Maurensig gives us a refined and engaging literary parable on narcissism, vainglory, and our inextinguishable thirst for stories.

From the Back Cover

Wild rabies runs rampant through the woods. The foxes are gaining ground, boldly making their way into the village. In Dichtersruhe, an insular yet charming haven stifled by the Swiss mountains, these omens go unnoticed by all but the new parish priest. The residents have other things on their mind: Literature. Everyone's a writer--the nights are alive with reworked manuscripts. So when the devil turns up in a black car claiming to be a hot-shot publisher, unsatisfied authorial desires are unleashed and the village's former harmony is shattered. Taut with foreboding and Gothic suspense, Paolo Maurensig gives us a refined and engaging literary parable on narcissism, vainglory, and our inextinguishable thirst for stories.

Review Quotes

"A Devil Comes to Town is a brilliant form of torture...a huge amount of fun."--Lisa Grgas for The Literary Review

"There's a lot to savor in this bleakly satirical novel, from the description of an isolated town teeming with writers of varying talents to a unique spin on the idea of devils (as opposed to the devil) sowing chaos in the world. The nested structure nods to both nineteenth-century Gothic tales and postmodern lit--which in and of itself suggests the sensibility of this narrative of diabolical interests and literary ambition."--Tobias Carroll for Words Without Borders

"This nested narrative is an entertaining exploration of the manifold powers--creative, confessional, corrupting--of fiction." --Publisher's Weekly

"Maurensig gives us a masterfully constructed gothic horror story designed to keep aspiring writers up at night. A macabre little Alpine horror story elevated by masterful storytelling and language." --Kirkus Reviews

"Paolo Maurensig has written a playful literary novel that has the prodigious rhythm of a thriller"--Goodreads

"Maurensig highlights the traps in the desire for literary fame and the resultant money...Only a spoilsport would disclose the ending of this moral fable that makes fun of the scribblers of banalities, but also examines evil that is frightening because it is contagious - like the rabies spread by invading foxes whose cries are heard at crucial moments in the narrative. It wouldn't be a Maurensig if the entertaining fable did not have dark seams."--The Sydney Morning Herald

"Maurensig has created a gripping short novel that is critical of the realities of publishing, a hybrid of at least two genres, highly imaginative, and involving even beyond the final page." --Critica Letteraria

"Biblical, oblique, and lying somewhere between thriller, fantasy, and legend, the new novel by Paolo Maurensig, A Devil Comes to Town, is a disturbing reflection in narrative form concerning the darker side of writing." --Il Giornale

About the Author

PAOLO MAURENSIG was born in Gorizo, and lives in Udine, Italy. Now a bestselling author, he debuted in 1993 with The Lüneburg Variation, translated into twenty-five languages, and selling over 2 million copies in Italy. His novels include Canone Inverso, The Guardian of Dreams, and The Archangel of Chess. For his novel Theory of Shadows, published by FSG in the US in January 2018, he won the Bagutta Prize. A Devil Comes to Town is his latest novel.

ANNE MILANO APPEL, based in California, has translated works by a number of leading Italian authors for a variety of publishers in the US and UK. Her most recent translations include works by the award-winning Antonio Scurati and Paolo Maurensig. Her awards include the Italian Prose in Translation Award, the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation, and the Northern California Book Award for Translation. Her website is: amilanoappel.com.