Synopses & Reviews
A stunningly original novel of literary obsession and imagination that is sure to be one of the most highly anticipated debuts of the year.
From a precociously talented young writer already widely admired in the literary world, The Mayor's Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novel that unfolds in two complementary narratives, one following a young man and the other an old man. The young man is Eugene Brentani, aflame with a passion for literature and language, and a devotee of the reclusive author and adventurer Constance Eakins, now living in Italy. The old man is Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, and, confused and terrified, he longs to confide in his dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford has disappeared, and his letters, postmarked from Italy, become more and more ominous as the weeks pass.
In separate but resonating story lines, both men's adventures take them from New York City to the mountainous borderlands of northern Italy, where the line between reality and imagination begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own. Here, we are immersed in Rich's vivid, enchanting world full of captivating characters the despairing Enzo, who wanders looking for a nameless love; the tiny, doll-like guide, Lang; and the grotesque Eakins. Over this strange, spectral landscape looms the Mayor, a mythic and monstrous figure considered a "beautiful creator" by his townspeople, whose pull ultimately becomes irresistible.
From a young writer of exceptional promise, this refreshingly original novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the madness of mayors, the failings of language, and the transformative powers of storytelling.
Review
"In this tale about the obsessive relationship between a writer and his voice, Nathaniel Rich finds his own." Men's Vogue
Review
"Rich delivers a daring, wonderfully weird first novel. The book is divided into two narratives....The stories never cross explicitly, but an electricity arcs between them, inducing an effect as haunting as the reality-collapsing yarns of Paul Auster." Interview
Review
"Nathaniel Rich's first novel is a coming-of-age story like Pinocchio in reverse: Instead of growing up to become a real boy, the hero of The Mayor's Tongue grows up to find out that he's not real at all. If you're a Pynchon or Fowles fan, it's a novel for you." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Shockingly strong debut from gifted writer....Rich demonstrates an almost impish delight in confounding rather than elucidating, systematically disfiguring the barrier between fiction and reality....The novel's foremost delight is its measured, nearly imperceptible descent into the realm of fairy-tale." Paste Magazine
Review
"Rich's strangely hypnotic novel, brimming with fantastical figures, gently pulls readers into its orbit." Booklist
Review
"The novel's narratives play off each other, offering literary allusions to H.L. Mencken, Simone de Beauvoir and Yasunari Kawabata. A debut novel that will appeal most to punch-drunk bibliophiles." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"I read The Mayor's Tongue with ever-increasing delight, rooting with all my heart for the young protagonist on his near-mythic quest. This is an elegantly-structured, brilliantly-told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny, and always generous and magical. The Mayor's Tongue is about how we talk to each other and how make-believe helps us get on with our lives; most of all, it's about love. Kudos to Nathaniel Rich, who has created a brave book, a novel brimming with brio." Stephen King
Review
"Ambitious, intelligent, hallucinatory, and, most important: heartfelt. Here is a young writer who is not afraid to give literature a kick in the pants, a writer deep in the thrall of language." Gary Shteyngart
Review
"The Mayor's Tongue reminds me of Peter Carey's early work the highest possible praise. It presents a young writer of deep ambition and imagination working with a kind of unnerving maturity. It's clear from the very first pages that Nathaniel Rich can really write, and he proceeds to unfurl a fascinating mobius strip of a novel, its dual narratives swerving and twisting until they've come together in a way that seems all at once impossible and endlessly elegant." Colum McCann, author of Zoli and This Side of Brightness
Review
"The Mayor's Tongue is a goofy, playful, highly intellectual novel about serious subjects the failure of language, for one, and how we cope with that failure in order to keep ourselves sane." Carolyn See, Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)
Synopsis
One of the most original, dazzling, and critically acclaimed debut novels this year.In this debut novel, hailed by Stephen King as ?terrifying, touching, and wildly funny,? the stories of two strangers, Eugene Brentani and Mr. Schmitz, interweave. What unfolds is a bold reinvention of storytelling in which Eugene, a devotee of the reclusive and monstrous author, Constance Eakins, and Mr. Schmitz, who has been receiving ominous letters from an old friend, embark from New York for Italy, where the line between imagination and reality begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own.
About the Author
Nathaniel Rich has published essays and criticism in The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Nation, The New Republic, and Slate. He is an editor at The Paris Review.