Commissario Guido Brunetti returns with a gripping case about the murkiness of power and a test of loyalties in A Refiner’s Fire, by Donna Leon. She shares a few words about her forthcoming read…
I try to keep an eye on the little things – well, what begin as little things – in Italian culture, and for some years, I’ve been interested in what Italians call, “Baby Gangs.” They began as groups of boys (almost exclusively) who caused trouble: bothering people on the street, small acts of vandalism, purse-snatching.
But then there was what Italians call “un escalation.” The violence intensified and was manifest in clashes, often quite violent, between different groups. There’s also been more vandalism and more criminality.
When I began the new book, which turned out to become A Refiner’s Fire, I thought it would be about Baby Gangs, but then I started reading about the Italian military, and the book changed its mind and followed my interest.
I’ve begun another one (though I did lie at anchor for a week or two) and began to consider one of the many offices supported by the city government. And it came to me, as it first did about fifty years ago, that this might well be a place where a person could . . . . humm, how to say this?. . . Is “augment” the word I want to use? I guess it is. So vacation’s over and it’s back to work, back to gossip with my Venetian friends, always the source of the most interesting information.
You can now shop A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon online.
