The Beginnings - (Games of Eternity) by Antonio Moresco (Paperback)

About the Book

"The first book in Antonio Moresco's colossally disruptive Games of Eternity (Giochi dell'eternitáa) trilogy, translated into English for the first time. Upon its publication in Italy, The Beginnings was exactly that: the dawning of a new era. Like a photo-negative of Franz Kafka, or Virginia Woolf, Moresco's sweeping novel turns the stream-of-consciousness inside out, and offers nothing interior. Here, much like in real life, you will not be privy to the thoughts and feelings of others. Everything must be experienced as it happens. From our narrator's undergraduate years in seminary school, to his activities as a member of various Italian political factions, to his attempts to become a writer, The Beginnings is a shapeshifting journey across the 20th century, and across all of literature itself"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The first book in Antonio Moresco's colossally disruptive Games of Eternity (Giochi dell'eternità) trilogy, translated into English for the first time.

Upon its publication in Italy, The Beginnings was exactly that: the dawning of a new era. Like a photo-negative of Franz Kafka, or Virginia Woolf, Moresco's sweeping novel turns the stream-of-consciousness inside out, and offers nothing interior. Here, much like in real life, you will not be privy to the thoughts and feelings of others. Everything must be experienced as it happens.

From our narrator's undergraduate years in seminary school, to his activities as a member of various Italian political factions, to his attempts to become a writer, The Beginnings is a shapeshifting journey across the 20th century, and across all of literature itself.

Review Quotes

"A towering absurdist work." --Publisher's Weekly

"A hypnotic and dreamlike book, punctuated by moments of effervescent clarity." --Chicago Review of Books

"Shifting beneath the reader's feet, The Beginnings is a vertiginous, feverishly compelling work, offering a feast of surreal imagery and inventive language to those who approach it patiently." --Brock Covington

"The prose of The Beginnings is a camouflage that wants nothing more intensely than to fully reveal itself in all of its disruptive possibilities." --COM-POSIT

About the Author

Antonio Moresco was born in Mantua and lives in Milan. Considered one of the founders of modern Italian literature, The Beginnings is his second book to be published by Deep Vellum, after Clandestinity, a collection of short stories. He has gone on to publish several more books, among them the short novel La cipolla (The Onion), the autobiographical Lettere a nessuno (Letters to No One), and Distant Light, which was published by Archipelago in 2013.

Max Lawton is a writer, musician, and translator. He is currently working in close collaboration with Vladimir Sorokin to publish all of his untranslated works in English. His translation of Michael Lentz's Schattenfroh was one of the most anticipated English-language titles of 2025. Max is also currently working on or has plans to translate works by Antonio Moresco, Stefano D'Arrigo, Alberto Laiseca, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eduard Limonov, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Hans Henny Jahnn, and Miquel de Palol. His first novel Progress is coming out with Verso in 2027. His translations have appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, Harper's, The Baffler, The White Review, and Joyland. He lives in Los Angeles, where, when he isn't writing, he plays heavy metal and noise music.