Tasmania

Starred review from August 19, 2024
Giordano (Heaven and Earth) delivers a resonant story of a writer worn down by the climate crisis and rising authoritarianism. Italian academic and journalist Paolo struggles in his increasingly loveless marriage to Lorenza, with whom he’s failed to have a baby after three years of expensive and painful interventions. He travels to Paris for a climate conference in November 2015 and is unnerved by the “militarized” streets in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, and by his reunion with his globe-trotting university friend Giulio, who makes Paolo painfully aware of his passionless and sedentary existence. His disaffection increases during the Trump administration, especially when the U.S. withdraws from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Spurred by Giulio, he travels around Europe and meets other intellectuals, including the journalist Novelli, who tells Paolo he’d like to retreat from the world’s imminent disasters by settling in Tasmania. That plan greatly appeals to Paolo, who obsessively considers making his own retreat, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, he continues his travels and his work, heading to Japan for research on his book about the atom bomb. With incisive prose, Giordano brings order to the messy tangle of Paolo’s emotional turbulence and political convictions. This soars. Agent: Marleen Seegers, 2 Seas Agency.