A Fictional Inquiry

“A metaphysical detective story and a modern Italian classic. A strange and ambiguous novel and a brilliant meditation on the mysteries that inform literature.”–Mark Haber, author of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss and Reinhardt’s Garden

This haunting novel was championed by acclaimed Italian author Italo Calvino who called it a “very simple book, straightforward to read, but at the same time possessing great depth and extraordinary quality.” First published in 1983 and never before translated into English, A Fictional Inquiry tells of an unnamed narrator visiting Trieste and London to retrace the footsteps of a fabled literary figure. The narrator is intrigued by the elusive, long dead man of letters whose career proved decisive to the culture of his native Italy despite his apparently never having written a line. There are encounters with those who once loved him, walks along the streets he frequented, and visits to his favored cafés, bookstores, and a library in search of an answer. Why did he leave no written trace? In the end, as Italo Calvino wrote when this book originally appeared in Italian, who the legendary author manqué actually was is beside the point. What really matters are the questions and the disquiet running through these luminous pages, the dialectic between literature and life playing out just below the surface. A Fictional Inquiry–which includes notes from both Calvino and translator Anne Milano Appel–is a gem of unparalleled writing appearing in English for the first time.