Press:
“D’Izzia sets his remarkable debut novel in the fictional town of Figallia, an archetype of the dark side of southern Italian small-town life where not even the Sicilian sunlight can penetrate the darkness and dispel the effects of provincialism, corruption, and brazen disregard of laws ... With his accessible prose and detached sarcasm, as well as his view of Sicily as an inexhaustible mine of metaphor for Italy’s seemingly invincible ills, D’Izzia follows in the footsteps of literary giants of the likes of Pirandello, Sciascia, and Andrea Camilleri. ”
Italian Americana (full pdf and online)
“In the fall of 2022, the translation of Guglielmo D’Izzia’s debut novel, entitled ‘The Transaction,’ will see the light of day. D’Izzia was born in Sicily, and as an actor he has had important collaborations, from Luca Barbareschi to the Oscar-winning Milena Canonero; in Canada he has become an appreciated writer and his first novel has won many awards, such as the “Crime writers of Canada awards of excellence - 2021”.
”
L’Edicola del Sud (full article)
“Guglielmo D’Izzia won best crime first novel for ‘The Transaction.’ The darkly humorous novel by the Toronto-based author traces a person’s descent into deviancy amidst a criminal conspiracy.”
CBC Books (full article)
“‘The Transaction,’ Guglielmo D’Izzia’s debut novel, cements his place as a master of prose. ... The novel reads like an instant classic, at first conjuring Hemingway’s simple, modern prose, but then revealing something sinister and surreal that would be more at home in Kafka’s wild imagination. ... Every sentence is carefully crafted, simple and elegant, pulling you to the next along with De Angelis as he makes a crazy odyssey through the countryside of Italy. ”
Prairie Fire Magazine (full review)
“In essence, it’s a Hotel California situation, and D’Izzia’s compelling narrative captures the stifling fear and intrigue of this purgatory brilliantly. ... The entire novel is a sweeping and stunning exercise in being uncomfortable. ... [T]o maintain this level of intensity for an entire novel without becoming exhausting (or just plain boring) is no easy feat, but D’Izzia manages it through a masterful grasp of dark comedy—and like all good comedy, timing is everything.”
The Ottawa Review of Books (full review)
“The parallels between ‘The Transaction’ and our historic moment are stunning, ... D’Izzia writes like a rolling video camera whose lens lingers lovingly on miscreants, degenerates and grotesqueries of all descriptions ... you will almost certainly see this story on the screen, be it large or small. It has great potential as a sophisticated masterpiece of physical and psychological horror.”
Winnipeg Free Press (full review)
“D’Izzia has a pristine voice for the off-kilter while grounded in European Modernism. A love song to Kafkalike absurdism reminiscent of a Sicilian Camus. The prose, the
sweltering heat, each minor character who brushes against De Angelis’ fumbling is executed to perfection ... [It] takes a talented novelist to produce something with such texture and reality. ... ‘The Transaction’ is a masterful work of realism, absurdist rationale, and discomfort … ”
MacroMicroCosm (full printed & audio/video review)
“Great books for mystery and true crime fans!”
49th Shelf (full article)
“I am extremely impressed that this is D’Izzia’s first professional written work. Readers who enjoy dark humor, with unsettling plot twists and eccentric characters will enjoy reading ‘The Transaction.’ The author’s gift for writing vivid descriptions will really make you feel like you are there. It will take you on a rollercoaster ride in which you find yourself both curious and dreading the upcoming twists and turns. I highly recommend reading “The Transaction.” ”
Reader Views (full review)
“If it is true that works of art last for generations because of their ambiguities, ‘The Transaction’ should last for centuries. ... Guglielmo D’Izzia is a skilled, disciplined artist refusing to give the reader clarity of meaning and motivation. He makes us interpret, and we readers of great literature value our own involvement in a piece. Something intriguing is going on here, and few of us will see it in the same way. I can just imagine the discussions around seminar tables. We learn more from what is not said, than from what is. And I say, bravo!”
Readers’ Favorite (full review)
“As a novelist, Guglielmo D’Izzia is a master of a noir tinged narrative storytelling style for ‘The Transaction’ that readers will find inherently fascinating and totally engaging ... unreservedly recommended ...”
MBR Bookwatch (full review)
“It cannot be easy to write humorous fiction, although it does seem to come naturally to some. In the television world, they have writing teams, but in the sequestered world of the writer, it’s all on them to produce a work that is not only funny but interesting as well, that tells a story. ‘The Transaction’ is such a story and from all appearances, Mr. D’Izzia appears to have the delicate mix of humour and earnest literature in fine control in this, his debut novel from Guernica Editions.”
The Miramichi Reader (full review)
“Despite De Angelis’ amorality, the fact that he compulsively keeps after his goal even after encountering impediment after impediment, makes him an evocative character ... unreliable narrators make for a more intriguing read and this one had me paying equal attention to clues and red herrings, and in the end it was up to me to choose what to believe.”
subTerrain (full review)
“‘The Transaction’ is a smart book. One that knows exactly what it is and what it’s trying to say ... It’s a cerebral pleasure more than it is a visceral one ... I liked it because it explored the idea of the disappearance of the self, which I’m really interested in, and it does it in a subtle way [that] doesn’t call too much attention to itself.”
Dead End Follies (full review)
“‘The Transaction’ is a novel set in the 1980s in Sicily, with murder and the mafia as important (though off-stage) elements of the story. But D’Izzia’s novel is less Montalbano than Pirandello, not so much a crime novel as a literary and philosophical tale. ... The text is very detailed, evoking the claustrophobic Sicilian town vividly. The story is told clearly, ... and I was pulled right along to the end.”
International Noir (full review)
“This novel makes me want to visit Italy. This novel also makes me NOT want to visit Italy. There are numerous dichotomous images and events in this novel that leave the reader unsettled ... If you like suspenseful and atmospheric novels you will enjoy this one.
”
Ink And Spine (full review)
Praises for The Transaction:
“An amazingly confident narrative voice in an attention-grabbing debut novel. The landscapes and characters come vividly to life as the air of menace intensifies, page by page. It’s beyond me how a story so drenched in sunlight can feel so dark, how such innocent dialogue can bear so much irony, how so few words can immerse us so deeply, so quickly in this atmosphere. It bears comparison with the major voices of European Modernism and shows extraordinary promise.
”
“Guglielmo D’Izzia’s first novel is a dish seasoned with mystery, suspense, sensuality and Sicily. A slow train ride, an unscheduled stop in a southern Italian town inhabited by a collection of unpredictable characters who leap into your imagination with more fervor than the heat and fever of a Sicilian sun. This darkly lit mystery, delivered with quick and natural dialogue, takes many twists and turns leading to the suspense of the very last page. A fine debut from a writer you will hear from again and again.
”
“Mysterious, stark and cinematic, Guglielmo D’Izzia’s debut novel The Transaction takes the reader on an array of escalating and disturbing encounters. Perception is everything in the Sicilian town of Figallia where an out-of-town businessman from ‘the north’ becomes immersed in small-town life and its history of menace. Rife with dark undercurrents like a Giorgio de Chirico painting, the surface is not what it seems. Eerily detailed and atmospheric, this tightly controlled narrative brims with tension.
”
“No, it’s not easy to write. It’s not easy especially because it seems easy. The truth is we seldom come upon narrative voices and characters that are vivid, necessary, urgent. Vivid, because they come to life in the reader’s imagination. Necessary, because once encountered they forever inhabit the reader. Urgent, because they have the power to shed light on life’s hidden meanings. I’m often baffled by contemporary authors’ hunger for complacency, their self-congratulatory use of art. The great authors I loved and love bear witness to reality and describe it with a veracity that undresses us, that reveals. They don’t embellish; they don’t try to aggrandize their personalities and their abilities. They simply serve their vision, from a point of view that no one has ever dared before. Guglielmo D’Izzia has, in my opinion, the talent of great writers. His style, his sensibility, his characters, his landscapes reach deep into our souls to stay and take root.
”
“Absurd in all the right ways, The Transaction reads almost like what Kafka would have written if he’d been asked to do a remake of Scorsese’s After Hours but set in Sicily and over the course of a week instead of a night. Its hapless and deceptive (and perhaps above all self-deceptive) narrator is thrown back and forth between situations he claims not to understand, gets into fights he can’t remember, and keeps putting his foot into his mouth, but when given the chance to flee he instead wades in deeper. A strange and dynamic and entertaining debut.
”
“The Transaction leaves us feeling like Mr. Jones in the Dylan song: something is happening, but we don’t know what it is. De Angelis is on a business trip to a small provincial town in Sicily, but his business is soon undone, and we begin to wonder if he’ll survive and whether he cares if he does. There’s a bit of Camus and a bit of Kafka in this taut novel.
”
“A dark psychological mystery about an enigmatic and conflicted man’s unwelcome visit to an isolated Sicilian town. Guglielmo D’Izzia writes with precision about a sweaty world of grime, intrigue, and ominous questions.
”