A Devil.Comes to Town

By Paolo Maurensig

Translated by Anne Milano Appel

World Editions     2019

120 pages     Literary

Well, for sure, I have never read this book before! Here is the brief description from the publisher.

“Everyone’s a writer in Dichtersruhe (Switzerland). The residents have one thing on their mind: literature. So when the devil turns up claiming to be a hot-shot publisher, unsatisfied authorial desires are unleashed, and the village’s former harmony is shattered. Taut with foreboding and Gothic suspense, Paolo Maurensig gives us a refined and engaging parable on narcissism, vainglory, and our inextinguishable thirst for stories.”

In only 120 pages, Maurensig weaves a story of ultimate menace and anxiety, layering detail upon detail with such skill that the reader is left breathless—when they are not smiling in amusement at the vanity of the residents of the village, and the scurrilous image of the devil.

Frankly, it took me a while to get into the story, and when I finally figured out what was going on, I had to go back and begin again with some AHA moments now more present in my mind. How easily the human psyche can be flattered! How easily the human mind can be convinced that it has something special to share with the world! How easily the human will can be led down the wrong path! As the narrator notes, “It is incomprehensible how people who are more than mature—the burgomaster, too, is by far over seventy—can behave like children lured by a stick of candy.”

Maurensig’s depiction of the devil in the guise of a publisher is spot on. “. . .everything about his person reeks of excess, his laugh is raucous, his gestures theatrical, his hair, slicked back and rather long and greasy, is dyed black; his lips are purple and thin, the corners turned up to mimic a perennial smile. . .and the voice, that voice. . .”

As I reread the devil’s description, I was remembering a time in my life when the devil came to town. I was seeking to manage the insurance money that came from my husband’s estate, when a young man came to town. He had impeccable credentials and was from a prominent Michigan family. He had a plan to expand a pizza empire, since his family was friends with the chain’s founder. A coworker introduced me (as well as several other  coworkers), and we all invested in his proposition—which turned out to be a devilish scheme. Chaos ensued when he skipped the country with all our money. Eventually, we had to hire a lawyer, and the family returned all our investments. How easily we were suckered in!

Vanity and money are two guiding principles for the devil. Maurensig tells his tale with no feelings left intact. We are all vulnerable. The Kirkus reviewer said it best, “In this very creepy novella, the award-winning Italian novelist Maurensig (Theory of Shadows, 2018, etc.) constructs a mystery with the structure of nesting dolls, folding story within story until it’s impossible to separate technique from narrative.”