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More copies of this ISBNSassoby James Sturz
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Not since Donna Tartt's The Secret History has a novel delved so deeply into the world of fatal secrets. Pulsating with menace and sensuality, Sasso brings together a clash of cultures in the breathless, intense heat of the Italian summer during which it takes place. Hidden away in the labyrinthine caves that surround Mancanzano, deep in the Italian south, two teenagers are found dead, their naked bodies perfect except for the mysterious lacerations across their faces. As police puzzle over the deaths, four experts arrive to investigate the stunning frescoes found on the cave walls. Then another couple is found dead, and another, and as weeks, then months, pass, and the stifling heat of summer descends, the irresistible atmosphere holds them all in thrall....and one man uncovers secrets that may lead him to his own doom. Sasso is an astonishing, compelling first novel and an unforgettably intense thriller. Review:When the bodies of two beautiful Italian teenagers are found in an ancient cave, a sexual, archaeological and historical mystery is set in motion. At one level Sasso is a simple whodunnit, but at another it is a careful dissection of a community which for centuries has lived perched on the unforgiving rocks of the deep Italian south. Both lyrical and pacy (a harder combination than it seems), Sasso suggests that newcomer Sturz has a brilliant future.
— Eve Review:If Sturz merely wanted to write a fine murder mystery, SASSO would be a fine accomplishment. But it?s much more than that. There are huge chunks of anecdotal history of the region woven SASSO, and they are not sugarcoated. Booker T. Washington, after visiting southern Italy, equated the lot of the rural peasants there with those of southern black sharecroppers. Sturz captures the poverty and misery of the region with a practiced, unblinking eye, yet counterbalances it with a sardonic, ironic humor that permeates the novel from first page to last. It is not unusual while reading SASSO to be saddened, horrified and amused, often within the same paragraph and occasionally within the same sentence. SASSO is Sturz's first novel. I don't know if he has any more percolating within, but even if he does not, this book will cement his notoriety. This is a novel whose reputation will build slowly, surely and, ultimately, indelibly. — Bookreporter.com Review:This intriguing first novel offers one of the most compelling premises in recent crime fiction. A team of scientists has been summoned to the southern Italian village of Mancanzano, where many of the residents live in sassi (cave houses carved from a special stone called tufa) to examine a remarkable fresco, which was discovered in a cave that also held the naked bodies of two teenagers....The novel follows the growing hysteria as more bodies appear and the experts come under attack from local authorities.... This is a fine first novel, only a few missteps short of greatness.
— Booklist Review:An American anthropologist working in southern Italy finds his team's efforts plagued by a series of macabre murders in Sturz's debut, a vividly imagined, erotically charged thriller set in the tiny town of Mancanzano.... His use of the village's geography and history is masterful as he creates a sense of erotic tension amid the carnage.
— Publishers Weekly What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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