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Jacket copy:
The Mayor’s Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novel that unfolds in two complementary narratives, one following a young man and the other an old man. The young man, Eugene Brentani, is a devotee of the reclusive author and adventurer Constance Eakins, now living in Italy. The old man, Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, is confused and terrified, and he longs to confide in his dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford has disappeared, and his letters, postmarked from Italy, become more and more ominous as the weeks pass.
In separate but resonating storylines, both men’s adventures take them from New York City to the mountainous borderlands of northern Italy, where the line between imagination and reality begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own. Here we are immersed in Rich’s vivid, enchanting world full of captivating characters—the despairing Enzo who wanders looking for a nameless love; the tiny, doll-like guide, Frank Lang; and the grotesque Eakins. Over this strange, spectral landscape looms the Mayor, a mythic and monstrous figure considered a “beautiful creator†by his townspeople, whose pull ultimately becomes irresistible.
From a young writer with exceptional promise, this refreshingly original novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the madness of mayors, the failings of language, and the transformative power of storytelling.
Advance comment:
"I read The Mayor's Tongue with ever-increasing delight, rooting with all my heart for the young protagonist on his near-mythic quest. This is an elegantly-structured, brilliantly-told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny, and always generous and magical. The Mayor's Tongue is about how we talk to each other and how make-believe helps us get on with our lives; most of all, it's about love. Kudos to Nathaniel Rich, who has created a brave book, a novel brimming with brio."
-Stephen King
"The Mayor's Tongue reminds me of Peter Carey's early work—the highest possible praise. It presents a young writer of deep ambition and imagination working with a kind of unnerving maturity. It's clear from the very first pages that Nathaniel Rich can really write, and he proceeds to unfurl a fascinating mobius strip of a novel, its dual narratives swerving and twisting until they've come together in a way that seems all at once impossible and endlessly elegant."
-Colum McCann, author of Zoli and This Side of Brightness
"Ambitious, intelligent, hallucinatory, and, most important: heartfelt. Here is a young writer who is not afraid to give literature a kick in the pants, a writer deep in the thrall of language."
—Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan
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