{"product_id":"the-silver-book-9781405982290","title":"The Silver Book","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eQueer love story meets true crime thriller in the dream factory of 1970s cinema, from award-winning, bestselling author Olivia Laing  It is September 1974. Two men meet by chance in Venice. One is a young English artist, in panicked flight from London. The other is Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema, the designer responsible for realising the spectacular visions of Fellini and Pasolini. Donati is in Venice to produce sketches for Fellini's Casanova. A young - and beautiful - apprentice is just what he needs.  He sweeps Nicholas to Rome, into the looking-glass world of Cinecitt , the studio where Casanova's Venice will be ingeniously assembled. Then in the spring, the lovers move together to the set of Sal , Pasolini's horrifying fable of fascism.  But Nicholas has a secret and in this world of constant illusion, his real nature passes unseen. Amidst the rising tensions of Italy's 'Years of Lead', he acts as an accelerant, setting in motion a tragedy he didn't intend . . .\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781405982290\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 08 Sep 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Penguin Books Ltd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x13(L)x1.8(W)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eOlivia Laing is an internationally acclaimed writer and critic. They're the author of eight books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and the Sunday Times number one bestseller The Garden Against Time. Laing's first novel, Crudo, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and in 2018 they were awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction. They are an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts and their books have been translated into twenty-one languages.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eLaing’s accomplished second novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Silver Book, \u003c\/i\u003efeels like a precision-controlled environment. In taut sentences, Laing evokes the sensuous eroticism and incipient danger of it 1970s Italian setting, moving towards a shattering conclusion . . . rigorously researched and realised historical fiction -- Patricia Nicol * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eDonati is described as an “illusionist”. So, too, is Laing, who seamlessly inserts a fictional narrative into a real historical world . . . a prose that pares down and transforms the messiness of the real into sentence after sentence of unforced lucidity . . . the author’s scene-setting is managed with deftness . . . a gripping novel that is, in many ways, a technical tour de force -- Lucasta Miller * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eSublime . . . where the book really soars is in its visceral portrait of Italian renegade filmmaking . . . Laing’s prose is taut and cleareyed . . . This unsentimental style brings the 1970s Italian cinema scene to vivid life, making the work of Pasolini and Fellini feel fresh, daring and urgent -- Christopher Bollen * The New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eLaing draws on the Italian director’s unsolved murder for their sumptuous second novel . . . A great chronicler of male genius, sexuality, loneliness and madness . . . Laing has such a gift for capturing shimmering details -- Olivia Ovenden * Observer *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Silver Book\u003c\/i\u003e, an absorbing amalgam of fact and fiction, exalts Salo as an admonitory horror masterwork of our times -- Ian Thompson * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eSet on surreal Italian film sets, this noir-tinged novel explores queer desire, creativity and dangerous secrets. Loosely based on real events, it captures the glamour and moral fog of the 1970s art world * i Paper, 'Best Books to Read in November' *\u003cbr\u003eLaing’s writing is detailed to the point of being documentary, and much of this fascinating novel is about real-life people and the cinematic illusions they assembled by hand. But it has the urgency of fiction, pulsing with its characters’ deeply held desires and fears . . . “The film has opened a door on to the past, and something is moving, down there in the dark,” Danilo says to Nicholas. We can feel it too * Vulture, 'The Best Books of 2025' *\u003cbr\u003eAn arresting narrative about art, filmmaking, and desire in 1970s Italy . . . Shimmery and dreamlike, \u003ci\u003eThe Silver Book\u003c\/i\u003e lives up to the promise of its name * Los Angeles Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eA transportive, hot-blooded book, flooded by Roman light, sticky heat, and scooter exhaust—and a potent tribute to the fierce, uncompromising vision of Pasolini, whose dark warnings have come home to roost fifty years later * AnOther Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eLaing’s background as an arts writer, and their clear love of visual art, comes through in the language of beauty and pleasure that suffuses\u003ci\u003e The Silver Book . . .\u003c\/i\u003e The text is unabashedly queer and unapologetically erotic, a delight to read . . . they have a gift for capturing the subtle fluctuations of yearning and desire . . . Laing’s strength as a biographer and historian makes \u003ci\u003eThe Silver Book\u003c\/i\u003e sing on a deeper level; their lush, beautiful prose is backed by meticulous research . . . In our own era of rising fascism, of increasing violence and conservatism, Laing’s novel feels eerily timely -- Emily Watlington * Art in America, '6 Books We’re Looking Forward to in November' *","brand":"Olivia Laing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49241060901081,"sku":"9781405982290","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/the-silver-book-9781405982290","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}