olivia laings silver book pasolini fellini

Olivia Laing's novel "The Silver Book" is set in 1974 Italy during the Years of Lead, following Nicholas Wade, a young Slade graduate who becomes the lover and apprentice of costume and set designer Danilo Donati. Donati is working on Federico Fellini's "Casanova" and Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salò," and the story explores their creative and erotic relationship against a backdrop of political turmoil. Laing's prose is vignetted and elliptical, focusing on daily acts of filmmaking and the sensual world of the characters.