Gregory Dowling on The Lover of No Fixed Abode

In Venice I've been lucky enough to spend time with Gregory Dowling, author of the Alvise Marangon novels and translator of a Venetian classic, The Lover of No Fixed Abode, now available for the first time in English from Bitter Lemon Press.

Gregory is a fascinating chap, Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari, a long-term resident of the city, an expert scholar on Lord Byron, and a selfless and generous source of advice for itinerant foreign authors drifting through the city in search of local colour.

He’s certainly saved my skin a good few times when I stumbled over one of the many more obscure pitfalls those of us who set stories there often fall into.

Here is talking about this fascinating new but old book.

The authors

Franco Lucentini (left, 1920-2002) and Carlo Fruttero (right, 1926-2012) wrote six works of fiction together, the most popular in Italy being The Lover of No Fixed Abode, published in 1986. It has never before been available in English. In 2025 Bitter Lemon Press will be publishing Runaway Horses, their murder mystery set in Siena during the Palio, the city’s colourful annual horse-race.

Gregory

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