Secrecy
Rupert Thomson, 2013
Other Press
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781590516850
Summary
A sorcerer in wax. . . A fugitive. . . Haunted by a past he cannot escape: Threatened by a future he cannot imagine.
Zummo, a Sicilian sculptor, is summoned by Cosimo III to join the Medici court. Late seventeenth-century Florence is a hotbed of repression and hypocrisy. All forms of pleasure are brutally punished, and the Grand Duke himself, a man for whom marriage has been an exquisite torture, hides his pain beneath a show of excessive piety.
The Grand Duke asks Zummo to produce a life-size woman out of wax, an antidote to the French wife who made him suffer so. As Zummo wrestles with this unique commission, he falls under the spell of a woman whose elusiveness mirrors his own, but whose secrets are far more explosive. Lurking in the wings is the poisonous Dominican priest, Stufa, who has it within his power to destroy Zummo’s livelihood, if not his life.
In this highly charged novel, Thomson brings Florence to life in all its vibrant sensuality, while remaining entirely contemporary in his exploration of the tensions between love and solitude, beauty and decay. When reality becomes threatening, not to say unfathomable, survival strategies are tested to the limit. Redemption is a possibility, but only if the agonies of death and separation can be transcended. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— November 5th 1955
• Where— Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Cambridge University
• Currently—lives in London, England
Rupert Thomson is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels. He was once described by the critic James Wood as "one of the strangest and most refreshingly un-English voices in contemporary fiction," and has been compared to writers as various as Franz Kafka, J. G. Ballard, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Charles Dickens, Elmore Leonard, and Mervyn Peake.
Background
Following the sudden death of his mother, Thomson was educated as a boarder at Christ's Hospital School. At the age of seventeen, he was awarded a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied Medieval History and Political Thought. He worked as a copywriter in London from 1978 to 1982, before abandoning his job to write full-time. Thomson has lived in many cities throughout the world, including New York, Sydney and Barcelona. He currently lives in South London.
Novels
• 1987 - Dreams of Leaving
• 1991 - The Five Gates of Hell
• 1993 - Air and Fire
• 1996 - The Insult
• 1998 - Soft
• 1999 -The Book of Revelation
• 2005 - Divided Kingdom
• 2007 - Death of a Murderer
• 2013 - Secrecy
The Insult, Thomason's fourth novel, was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and was chosen by David Bowie as one of his "100 Must-Read Books of All Time." The Book of Revelation, his sixth novel, was made into a feature film by the Australian writer/director, Ana Kokkinos. His 2007 novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year.
With This Party's Got to Stop, Thomson ventured into non-fiction for the first time, exploring events surrounding his father's death and his complex relationships with his brothers and his extended family. The memoir won the Writers' Guild Non Fiction Book of the Year. Secrecy, his 2013 novel, is based on the life and work of the eccentric Sicilian wax artist, Gaetano Giulio Zumbo. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/5/2014.)
Book Reviews
Chillingly brilliant and sinister…masterly.
Financial Times (UK)
Bewitching…Intensely atmospheric…Superb.
Daily Mail (UK)
Scene after scene trembles with breath-stopping tension on the edge of bliss or dread. No one else writes quite like this in Britain today.
Observer (UK)
Beautifully evocative prose...makes this unusual historical novel truly memorable. In 1691, a mysterious artist known as Zummo...is summoned to Florence by Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.... [P]lot twists take a back seat to the complex picture Thomson gives of his oddball protagonist, a man given to wandering around carrying “little theaters filled with...the dead and dying” in the name of art.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Thomson...sets his new work in 17th-century Florence, drawing on the life of Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, a Sicilian sculptor granted patronage by the grand duke of Tuscany to create a replica of his wife in wax. Given the cultural climate of Florence and the looming threat of the Roman Inquisition, it is a dangerous commission.... A page-turning historical thriller by one of Britain's finest writers. —Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH
Library Journal
Thomson brings Renaissance-era Florence to life with rich descriptions and scenic locales. Readers who have toured Florence will enjoy revisiting the sites in the mind’s eye, and historical fiction fans in general will relish the virtual trip brimming with mystery and intrigue.
Booklist
Thomson takes us to 17th-century Florence, which by definition seems to be full of corrupt politicians, unscrupulous clergy and aspiring artists—and this, of course, long after the Renaissance has ended. We begin with a dialogue between Italian sculptor Gaetano Zummo...[whose] reminiscences take him back some 25 years.... Thomson succeeds on a number of levels here, for the novel works as a mystery, as a love story, as a historical novel and, more abstractly, as an exploration of aesthetic theory.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Do you regard Secrecy as a work of historical fiction, literary fiction, suspense, or a mixture of all three? Have you read anything similar to this before?
2. What is unusual about Florence in the late 17th century and why does Thomson choose to set the novel in this time period? What do you think about Thomson’s portrait of post-Renaissance Italy?
3. What is it about Zummo's work that divides people? How do you feel about Zummo’s morbid fascination with death and disease? What could be the source of this fascination?
4. What is Zummo's attitude towards love? Do you think Faustina changes Zummo, or do you feel that he has always been capable of loving someone in such a way? What do you think draws them so close to one another?
5. What might Thomson be trying to say about evil and taking people at face value? Can Zummo be described as evil in any way? What can be said about the relationship between Stufa and Zummo?
6. Is there something that Earhole, Fiore, Faustina, Mimmo, and Zummo have in common? Is Thomson looking to give a voice to the marginalized?
7. Why does Thomson mingle real historical figures with fictional characters? Can you distinguish between them?
8. What do the Grand Duke’s confidants have against Zummo? Why are they so distrustful of him?
9. As Marguerite explains towards the end, “Secrecy had many faces. If it was imposed on you, against your will, it could be a scourge—the bane of your existence. On the other hand, you might well seek it out. Nurture it. Rely on it. You mind life impossible without it. But there was a third kind of secrecy, which you carried unknowingly, like a disease or like the hour of your death. Things could be kept from you, maybe forever.” How does this relate to the structure of the novel?
10. Why does Thomson give Marguerite d'Orleans a voice in the novel?
11. Why does Zummo make the decision he does at the end of the novel? Do you think the reasons he gives Marguerite d’Orelans for his decision are convincing?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)