The House of Others

Short novella applying near perfect suspense, set in a small village in the Italian Apennines. It opens with a scene describing six lamenting women and a pastor, sitting beside a corpse (unclear whose). Next it briefly describes the uneventful life of the village which contains 7 houses, and many sheep that are herded in the mountains during the day. Next a mysterious woman appears each end of day, washing clothes in the canal. The pastor waits, assuming she will come to him. But then she doesn’t. So he sends out his little spy. Next she comes with an odd question about the Church’s ruling on divorces – can exceptions be made? This intrigues the pastor, because he (rightly) suspects it was a dummy question to test the waters for show more the real question that bothers her. A game of cat and mouse evolves. The pastor wants to know, she rebuffs or ignores his advances. The woman is caught by young boys pestering her about her (supposed) marriage, the pastor tries to wean them off by jokingly coming out of his house as the supposed bridegroom. The woman drops a letter for him, but recollects it before he returns home to read it. Finally the pastor can take it no longer and forces her more or less to ask her question. She laments her hard life. She has never blamed the Gods for anything. Still, would the church grant her wish for suicide? The pastor is dumb folded. She claims she knew he would react that way. This is the end of their interaction. A couple of weeks later she is dead. The pastor meticulously takes care of the funeral, against the standard custom for suicide victims.

This novella is written in such a crafty manner with short sentences and crisp characterisations of things like the light fall, seasons, and day-to-day activities of the villagers and the ecclesiastic practices throughout the year. And the reader is urged on and on, because s/he wants to know. In one word: crafty. Pity the writer died young. show less

De achterflap noemt dit boek een sober en ingehouden poëtisch meesterwerk uit de Italiaanse literatuur, en dat wil ik niet tegenspreken. d'Arzo maakte verschillende versies van dit verhaal waarmee hij de vertalers een hele kluif bezorgde. De openingspagina van Andermans huis komt ook heel erg overeen met het begin van één van zijn verhalen uit de bundeling Avondlucht. De hoofdpersoon is priester in een minuscuul bergdorpje in de Apennijnen waar hij op een dag een oude vrouw ontmoet die hem een vraag stelt die hem niet meer loslaat. De inhoud van het verhaal (of de vraag) is hier van ondergeschikt belang. d'Arzo schildert meesterlijk het proces van aantrekken en afstoten tussen twee mensen. Net zoals in muziek de stiltes of niet show more gespeelde noten soms sterker doorwegen in de luisterervaring, zo droeg hetgeen d'Arzo niet schreef voor mij meer bij tot de poëtische sfeer van het boek. show less

★★★½

La vida en un poble aïllat a la muntanya, explica les trobades d'una dona amb el capellà del poble.

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