A Tomb on the Periphery

The latest novel, sharing the same troubled Neapolitan setting as Earthquake I.D. Part crime story, part ghost story, part coming of age, part redemption song, and more, all having to do with Italy's underground market in ancient jewelry. Gival Press selected the manuscript as runner-up for their national award.

Early in 2010, A Tomb on the Periphery made the short list for "the best of international publishing" at the London Book Festival.

Aaron Plesak has a fine and brainy essay-review about A Tomb on the Periphery in the February 2010 Collagist. "No object encountered is neutral... we are reminded how a tiny item or gesture may conjure the past... the pleasure is in discovering the characters." Many thanks to Aaron and the editors.

Thanks to Fred Gardaphe for his review of A Tomb on the Periphery in Frai Noi, Nov. 2009: "a thoroughly engaging story that stays true to its characters... Domini gets it and gets it right."

Thanks to Fred Misurella for his review in VIA: "tremendous entertainment value as well as literary heft... A novel of energy and intelligence."

Thanks to Jason Pettus for his review of A Tomb on the Periphery for the Chicago Center for Literature & Photography. Pettus gave the novel 9.5 stars out of 10, and said it compared favorably to the work of Michael Chabon and Cormac McCarthy, "stunning in its quality... a fabled rare book."

Thanks to Emanuele Pettener for his interview with John in the Winter Rain Taxi.

Thanks to Dan Wickett and his Emerging Writers Network for selecting A Tomb on the Periphery as on of their favorites for 2008. Emerging Writers Network awarded the book four and half stars: "extremely well-developed characters... a flair not frequently seen..."

Bookslut.com says it "takes the trappings of noir then transcends the genre... a lush and generous work."

Thanks to Jennifer Prado for her interview -- plus -- on the Emerge blog. Prado calls Tomb on the Periphery "authentic in every aspect...," its style a "balance of free-wheeling... associations and humor..." recalling "James Joyce and Woody Allen."

GentlyReadLiterature.com praises its "extraordinary energy and plasticity... startles, stabs, tickles and at times dazzles."

Thanks to Dennis Barone for his penetrating review of A Tomb on the Periphery in Italian Americana Winter 2009. "Domini's writing might be called projectile-prose. Exhibiting a Jamesian complexity, ...he demonstrates a lively, generous mind in action through swift moving, sonorous language."

Thanks to Janyce Stefan-Cole and Main Street Rag:"As in Orhan Pamuk... The reader is transported to ancient times and modern plights, ...while wrapped up in a suspenseful tale."

Thanks to Lew Diuguid and Johns Hopkins Magazine for selecting A Tomb on the Periphery for their "Shelf Life" column, November '08. "As the sauce thickens... all of the characters take on texture...."

Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer for the article and interview on Amazon's Omnivoracious page.

Thanks to Matt Miller and Des Moines Cityview for featuring A Tomb on the Periphery in their Fall Books Guide. "Fabrizzio is caught between his morals and his impulses... A fast-paced crime novel with a little romance." Thanks to the Midwest Book Review: "From first to last, A Tomb on the Periphery is a must." Thanks also to Adele Ver Steeg, in the The Iowan, and to Natalie Jacobsen McCracken for her fine work in Bostonia.

Des Moines Cityview: "caught between morals and impulses... a fast-paced crime novel with a little romance."

Midwest Book Review: "From first to last, A Tomb on the Periphery is a must." Thanks also to Adele Ver Steeg, in the July/August issue of The Iowan, and to Natalie Jacobsen McCracken for her fine work in Bostonia.

"John Domini is a master of suspense and psychological complexity." - Margot Livesey

Italian publication is under contract with Tullio Pironti Editore, the first Italian house to translate Don DeLillo. The novel should appear in 2010.

ISBN #978-1-928589-40-2
145 pages
$20
Buy now

Earthquake I.D.

The Italian translation of Earthquake I.D., titled Terremoto Napoletano, has been named the runner-up for the Domenico Rea prize, one of the most distinguished literary prizes in Italy. A panel of six judges selected the finalists.

Terremoto Napoletano was translated by Stefano Manferlotti. The press is Tullio Pironti Editore, the first Italian house to publish Don DeLillo. In Italy the book has received a lot of attention. La Repubblica, the largest paper in Italy, praised the novel as "dense with surprises... with so many stories and characters knit together in rhythm and in harmony." In Il Mattino, Fabrizio Coscia calls it: "a voyage of initiation... that seduces and wounds... in a city unmasked by Domini's style, refined, visionary, and alert to paradox." In Roma, Marco Catizone writes that Terremoto Napoletano: "captures all the subversive possibilities of language in a kaleidoscope of vibrant sound and image."

The first in John Domini's Naples sequence, published in spring '07, Earthquake I.D. has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Richard Ford, an earlier Pulitzer winner, called it "a wonderful novel of an old-fashioned sort...a rich feast." The Emerging Writers Network, in a four-star review, called it "a great, jam-packed novel."

Thanks to American Book Review, July/August 2009, and Ryan McCray: "Earthquake I.D. ambitiously mines the intersection between contrasts...to show how extremes bring out our truest forms. ...Barb and Jay's story is touching, as good as anything in Talking Heads:77."

Thanks to Jason Pettus and the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography for a wonderful review of Earthquake I.D., online at January 9, 2009. Pettus gave the novel 9.6 stars out of 10: "I'm in the presence of greatness... one of the best-written books of our times."

Fred Gardpahe in Fra Noi, writes: "A well focused plot tightly wound... Enough mystery to keep the pages turning while telling a contemporary story that can touch us all."

ISBN #978-1-59709-076-6
305 pages
$20.95
Buy now

Books & Rough Business

February 15, 2009, Red Hen Press will bring out John Domini's translation of Tullio Pironti's memoir, Books & Rough Business. An autobiography and social portrait, in Italy the book received over 100 reviews. Plans are in place for a movie adaptation.

Talking Heads: 77

A novel
ISBN 1-888996-46-3
264 pages
Tradepaper
$17.95
Buy now

Highway Trade

Short stories and a novella
ISBN 1-888996-07-2
192 pages
Tradepaper
$14.95
Buy now

Bedlam

Short stories
ISBN: 0931362032
Paperback
Buy now