Already keen on Olivia Laing’s writing, I found The Silver Book to be moving and thought-provoking and an improvement on her first novel, Crudo (which was also very good). It centres on an affair between Nicholas, the rather shadowly delineated central figure, and Danilo Donati, celebrated film designer during the period when Pasolini’s Salo and Fellini’s Casanova were being made. There’s lots of fascinating insights into film-making and politics in 1970s Italy and a sense that a lot of research has gone into making this novel work quite effortlessly. There are also plenty of warnings for our present. Like a queer version of Jonathan Cole’s excellent Mr Wilder and Me, this is really very good indeed.

Olivia Lang's latest novel takes us to the world of Italian cinema in the 1970s, specifically to the Cinecittà studios, where Pasolini and Fellini are making movies. Into this milieu wanders Nicholas, a young man disillusioned with British life, and in love with what Italy can offer - a hedonism not known back home. He meets and falls for Danilo Donati, a costume designer working in the studio. Rich and evocative, Laing's prose consumes us with it's beauty, and submerges us into this lost world with ease. It may have helped that I am very familiar with and also in love with this same period of Italian cinema, so none of the references went over my head. For someone not so familiar, you will certainly appreciate the detail and gain a sense of the mystery and majesty of the time. This is a wonderful novel which I devoured in one sitting. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.