From the Publisher
The crater held a circle of stars above them as if they were
closed up in a snow globe, a private cosmos. He thought of Darwin
sleeping out on the pampas during his Beagle trip, a middle-class
white kid traveling the world, the first of the backpackers. It was
only afterwards, really, that he had made any sense of what he had
seen. Alex wondered what, in the fullness of time, he himself would
make sense of, what small, crucial detail might be lodging itself
in his brain that would shake his life to its foundations. (p
286)
Montreal during the turbulent mid-1980's: Chernobyl has set geiger
counters thrumming across the globe, HIV/AIDS is cutting a deadly
swath through the gay population worldwide, and locally, tempers
are flaring over the language laws of Bill 101. Hiding out in a
seedy apartment near the Concordia campus is Alex Fratarcangeli
("Don't worry… I can't even pronounce it myself"), a somewhat
oafish 30-something grad student. Though tender and generous at
heart, Alex leads a life devoid of healthy relationships, ashamed
in particular of the damage he has done to the women with whom he
has been romantically entangled. Plagued by the sensation that his
entire life is a fraud, Alex attends daily sessions with a
lackluster psychoanalyst in an attempt to shake off the demon of
depression (and the cigarette-tinged voice of Peter Gzowski in his
ear). Scarred by a distant father and a dangerous relationship with
his ex Liz, and consumed by a floundering dissertation linking
Darwin's theory of evolution with the history of human narrative,
Alex has come to view love and other human emotions as
"evolutionary surplus, haphazard neural responses that nature had
latched onto for its own insidious purposes."
Then a convergence of brave souls enter Alex's life, forcing him to
recognize the possibility of meaningful connections. There is his
neighbour Esther, whose multiple sclerosis is progressing rapidly,
yet who gamely attacks every day she has left. There is the elegant
Félix, an older gay man whose own health status is in question yet
who remains resolutely generous,and María, returning to fight for
human rights in her native El Salvador, knowing she will face
certain peril. Along the way Alex meets others whose struggles with
their own demons are not so successful, and sometimes tragic. When
he receives a letter from Ingrid, the beautiful woman he knew years
ago in Sweden, notifying him of the existence of his five year old
son. Alex is gripped by a paralytic terror.
Whenever Alex's thoughts grow darkest, he is compelled to recall
Desmond, the British professor with dubious credentials whom he met
years ago in the Galapagos. Treacherous and despicable, wearing his
ignominy like his rumpled jacket, Desmond nonetheless caught Alex
in his thrall and led him to some life-altering truths during their
weeks exploring Darwin's islands together. It is only now that Alex
can begin to comprehend these unlikely life lessons, and see a
glimmer of hope shining through what he had thought was
meaninglessness.
Funny, poignant and visceral, Nino Ricci's most recent masterpiece
The Origin of Species will remind you of the
wonder of life, the beauty of existence and the great gift that is
our connection to the universe and all that is.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Jacket
"Ricci's masterstroke to date. This novel does so well, on so many
levels, that it's hard to know where to begin tallying up the
riches. . . . An ambitious, thrilling novel that resists
encapsulation and takes not a single misstep . . . it is also
bitterly, achingly funny."
- Toronto Star
"The Origin of Species is a profoundly moving
novel that lovingly creates a world of flawed but very real
characters."
- Winnipeg Free Press
"An entertaining and emotionally rewarding read, this book will
transport Nino Ricci to further heights of literary stardom and
could well overtake his first, Lives of the
Saints, as his signature work - much as the original
Origin of Species did to the career and life of
Charles Darwin."
- Ottawa Citizen
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Nino Ricci was born in Leamington, Ontario, to parents from the
Molise region of Italy. He studied English literature and creative
writing at York University and Concordia University, then Italian
studies at the University of Florence. He has taught literary
studies and creative writing in Canada and abroad. He now lives in
Toronto, and is a past president of the Canadian Centre of
International PEN.
Nino Ricci's first novel Lives of the Saints
garnered international acclaim, appearing in fifteen countries and
winning a host of awards, including Canada's Governor General''s
Award for Fiction and the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and
England's Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Prize.
Lives of the Saints formed the first volume of a
trilogy that was completed by In A Glass House and
Where She Has Gone, which was shortlisted for the
Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction. The trilogy was adapted for a
miniseries starring Sophia Loren, Sabrina Ferilli, and Kris
Kristofferson.
Ricci's 2002 novel Testament was the co-winner of
the Trillium Award and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize
for Canada and the Caribbean and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction
Prize. It has been published in several languages around the globe
and was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the
Year.
In 2006, Ricci was named the inaugural winner of the Alistair
MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement. His most recent novel,
Giller-nominated The Origin of Species, was
published in September 2008.
From the Hardcover edition.