[Nesacat]

The Cloud Machinery by Christopher Whyte

I just finished this book. Picked it up on a chance and it's a wonderful little book. It's about a tiny theatre at St Hyginus, in an obscure corner of Venice, which is about to reopen after 7 years. Domenico has been employed to rehearse the company and direct the operas. In the eaves of the theatre Domenico and his lover Rodolfo discover an ageing, half-mad castrato called Angelo Colombani in a room filled with theatrical machinery. It was the failure of his cloud machinery, on a disastrous night seven years before, that led to the closure of the theatre.

The book reads like a piece of classical music almost, maybe something by Mozart. It's elegantly written with a polished surface that does not however hide the disturbing pyschological undertones.

j.d. ... I like your choices