Synopses & Reviews
Domenic Stansberry's award-winning novel tells the story of Niccolo Jones, a broken-down man plagued by his obsession with his brother Joe's ex-wife, Marie. Set in the old Italian neighborhood of North Beach in San Francisco, the novel flashes back and forth between their childhood days in the 1950s and events thirty years later. The kids are adults now, and everything has changed.
Nick's story begins when Joe is murdered, igniting in Nick an unquenchable desire for revenge. The crime also awakens Nick's memories of days gone by, particularly his own illicit feelings for Marie. But the price of passion is as costly now as it was for Nick thirty years ago; for The Last Days of Il Duce is as much about the secrets of the past as it is about the sins of the present.
Dark, elegantly written, intricate, and astonishing, The Last Days of Il Duce is a superb novel in the classic noir tradition.
Review
"Stansberry does it with originality, through the freshness of his imagery and the lyricism of his lament for times that change, neighborhoods that grow old and people who can never find their way home." Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Stansberry has done it again with this gut-wrenching tale....Stansberry understands the way neighborhoods and families can imprison as they nurture, and he tells Nick's story in the hard-edged prose it demands. Straight noir, no chaser." Booklist
Review
"A murky, moody slice of noir, as sad and predictable as the decline of all the North Beaches everywhere." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Stansberry enlivens things with an intriguing picture of Italian fascist activity in San Francisco during World War II. He blends his ingredients with panache." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
This novel is set in San Francisco's North Beach, and examines not only the violent events that take place there in the 1990s a dangerous sexual obsession that leads to murder but their roots back in the 1940s and '50s in the same Italian-American neighborhood.
Synopsis
Domenic Stansberry's award-winning novel tells the story of Niccolo Jones, a broken-down man plagued by his obsession with his brother Joe's ex-wife Marie. Set in the old Italian neighborhood of North Beach in San Francisco, the novel flashes back and forth between their childhood days in the 1950s and events thirty years later. The kids are adults now, and everything has changed.
Nick's story begins when Joe is murdered, igniting in Nick an unquechable desire for revenge. The crime also awakens Nick's memories of days gone by, particularily his own illicit feelings for Marie. But the price of passion is as costly now as it was for Nick thirty years ago; for The Last Days of Il Duce is as much about the secrets of the past as it is about the sins of the present.
About the Author
Domenic Stansberry is the author of a book of short stories and two previous novels, one of which, The Spoiler, was also nominated for an Edgar Award. His latest novel, Manifesto for the Dead, will be published by St. Martin's Minotaur in 2001. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, poet Gillian Conoley, and daughter.