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“[The House on Via Gemito] is readable and elegant.”

— Times Literary Supplement, Jul 12 2023

“The House On Via Gemito is an exuberant portrait of the writer as a young (and then middle-aged) man, and an allegory of the role of the artist, adrift in the Sargasso of modernity.”

— On the Seawall, Jul 12 2023

“A vivid, fluid, richly detailed drama, tormented and hilarious.”

— The Washington Post, Jul 12 2023

“Starnone is a writer exquisitely attuned to class anxieties: As his later novels do, Via Gemito explores the emotional cost of class mobility, and the psychic toll of changing one’s speech patterns and behavior for the sake of social and financial gain.”

— The Atlantic, Jul 10 2023

“[The House on Via Gemito] presents a vivid rainbow of sediments."

— The Brooklyn Rail, May 30 2023

"Starnone the novelist succeeds beautifully in exploiting Federì’s self-contradictions and the unreliability of memory to create what is both a complex family narrative and a masterpiece on the elusive nature of truth."

— The New York Times Book Review, May 30 2023

★ “Every character...is a full-fledged human being filled with desire, regret, resentment, bitterness, and hope. At the same time, the Neapolitan setting comes equally alive...Starnone, it seems, can do no wrong. A complexly structured masterpiece.”

— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review), Mar 17 2023

“Indirection like that, stirring up terrific curiosity, proves one of the novel’s best gambits...I’d call it the best of Lahiri’s Starnone essays — a fine fit for the best of his recent creative surge.”

— Washington Post, Nov 10 2021

“With a few deft strokes of his concentrated prose, [Starnone] tears down the curtains, blinding his audience with daylight.”

— Los Angeles Review of Books, Nov 9 2021

“A sweeping examination of aging, love, and success... This is the third of Starnone’s novels that Lahiri has translated over the last six years, and her deft hand seamlessly reveals Starnone’s masterful narrative at every turn.”

— Booklist, Nov 9 2021

“A short, sharp novel that cuts like a scalpel to the core of its characters... Starnone has earned a reader’s trust with another agile analysis of frail humanity.”

— Los Angeles Times, Nov 8 2021

“This type of revelation is what translating Starnone’s work has taught me about language and about words—that they change as we blink and that they are rich with alternatives. It is my engagement with his texts that has rendered me, definitively, a translator.”

— The New Yorker, Nov 6 2021

“Electrifying... [Starnone] portrays unflinchingly the violence, physical and verbal, that can erupt within the closest relationships.”

— Financial Times, Nov 5 2021

“An Italian master gives it a suspenseful twist in this vibrant novel that’s equal parts Endless Love, la dolce vita, and unreliable narration...A rip of a read.”

— Oprah Daily, Oct 13 2021

“Absolutely brilliant! I have to say: Jhumpa Lahiri has done an amazing job. She is the best translator a writer could wish for.”

— RTE Radio, Oct 12 2021

“Starnone is a masterful storyteller who has crafted compelling, original, powerful books that invite close reading for their own literary merits.”

— Reading in Translation, Oct 11 2021

“Lahiri conveys the themes of loss perfectly.”

— Los Angeles Times, Aug 24 2021

“The story, it turns out, isn’t just about trust—but also about how we create our own lovers to suit the selves we’d like to be—or, at any cost, not to be. Richly nuanced while also understated, Starnone’s latest appearance in English is a novel to be savored.”

— Kirkus Reviews (Starred), Aug 18 2021

“Starnone (Trick) returns with an elegant story of a man’s lifelong struggle to perfect his public persona while hiding a secret.”

— Publishers Weekly, Jul 16 2021

“Acclaimed Italian novelist and National Book Award finalist Starnone’s newest novel explores vulnerability, relationships, and the gulf between our public and private selves.”

— The Millions, Jul 15 2021