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Rome Noir
Rome Noir looks beyond the tourist facade of Italy’s capital. This is the real city of Fellini, Pasolini, and countless other major artists who devoted their lives to depicting its grandeur and decadence.
Brand-new stories Antonio Scurati, C.D. Formetta, Diego De Silva, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, Francesca Mazzucato, Marcello Fois, Gianrico Carofiglio, Carlo Lucarelli, Maxim Jakubowski, Evelina Santangelo, Nicola LaGioia, Tommaso Pincio, Antonio Pascale, Nicoletta Vallorani, Giuseppe Genna, and others.
Chiara Stangalino is an organizer of the Courmayeur Noir In Festival. She lives in Turin, Italy.
Maxim Jakubowski is a British editor and writer. He reviews crime fiction for the Guardian and runs London’s Crime Scene Festival.
Brand-new stories Antonio Scurati, C.D. Formetta, Diego De Silva, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, Francesca Mazzucato, Marcello Fois, Gianrico Carofiglio, Carlo Lucarelli, Maxim Jakubowski, Evelina Santangelo, Nicola LaGioia, Tommaso Pincio, Antonio Pascale, Nicoletta Vallorani, Giuseppe Genna, and others.
Chiara Stangalino is an organizer of the Courmayeur Noir In Festival. She lives in Turin, Italy.
Maxim Jakubowski is a British editor and writer. He reviews crime fiction for the Guardian and runs London’s Crime Scene Festival.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2009
6 people are currently reading
206 people want to read
About the author
Maxim Jakubowski
279 books161 followersMaxim Jakubowski is a crime, erotic, and science fiction writer and critic.
Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.
He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.
His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.
Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.
He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.
His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 29, 2017
Opening tale, "Pasolini's Shadow," is amazing! Wonderfully heartfelt, dramatic, poetic. I'm floored. Pasolini's death has cast as long a shadow across literature and film as Byron's affair with Lady Caroline Lamb--the other book I'm reading today--heh heh.
"Eternal Rome." As bad as the first story was good--riddled with cliche, more sci fi than noir, with a dumb. "shock" ending.
"The Melting Pot." Not bad in terms of tone but--and this may not be a valid criticism of a story obviously about naivete--I found the narrator unrealistically naive.
"Last Summer Together" Not bad--but a bit like even the best Italian pop tunes, way over-dramatic.
"Don't Talk to the Passenger." Started out really great. The first truly noir story, using the trope of the psychopathic cop. End in a rather racist way though. Bugged me. Italians have a lot to learn about other cultures.
"Roman Holidays." Rather dull, plodding story in pedestrian language, imagery, concept.
"Tiburtina Noir Blues." Slightly effective, a great idea, but too broad/comic book in execution to be very convincing. Derivative of Psycho, with the same lame epilogue explaining everything in a condescending way.
"Words, Thought." Finally, another pretty good story. Like Italian pop music again a bit overdone, but I was pretty engrossed. Nice use of crime as a McGuffin to speak of other things: adolescence, first love, the generation gap.
"Christmas Eves." Wow. beautiful. A tiny little gem. Not really noir, per se, but haunting.
"Beret." Short and sweet--unexpectedly amusing. Move along, nothing much to see here.
"Remember Me with Kindness." Meh. Was hoping for more from the only non-translated story in the collection."
"Eaten Alive." Another good one! Not exactly noir in the US film sense, but dark indeed--and isolates the real enemy for once. All of the best stories in this collection are by women.
"For a Few..." A complex tale with little payoff, sadly. I assume the title is a reference to the Sergio Leone western but the translator didn't get it.
"Silence Is Golden." Horrible sexist piece of crap. This is exactly what's most wrong with the Italian male, their mommy complexes, and their violent, childlike self-absorption.
"Caput Mundi." Well written, truly hard boiled, but kinda fizzled at the end.
"1988." Quite witty and well written. So the collection begins and ends with a bang but sadly sags quite a bit in the middle.
"Eternal Rome." As bad as the first story was good--riddled with cliche, more sci fi than noir, with a dumb. "shock" ending.
"The Melting Pot." Not bad in terms of tone but--and this may not be a valid criticism of a story obviously about naivete--I found the narrator unrealistically naive.
"Last Summer Together" Not bad--but a bit like even the best Italian pop tunes, way over-dramatic.
"Don't Talk to the Passenger." Started out really great. The first truly noir story, using the trope of the psychopathic cop. End in a rather racist way though. Bugged me. Italians have a lot to learn about other cultures.
"Roman Holidays." Rather dull, plodding story in pedestrian language, imagery, concept.
"Tiburtina Noir Blues." Slightly effective, a great idea, but too broad/comic book in execution to be very convincing. Derivative of Psycho, with the same lame epilogue explaining everything in a condescending way.
"Words, Thought." Finally, another pretty good story. Like Italian pop music again a bit overdone, but I was pretty engrossed. Nice use of crime as a McGuffin to speak of other things: adolescence, first love, the generation gap.
"Christmas Eves." Wow. beautiful. A tiny little gem. Not really noir, per se, but haunting.
"Beret." Short and sweet--unexpectedly amusing. Move along, nothing much to see here.
"Remember Me with Kindness." Meh. Was hoping for more from the only non-translated story in the collection."
"Eaten Alive." Another good one! Not exactly noir in the US film sense, but dark indeed--and isolates the real enemy for once. All of the best stories in this collection are by women.
"For a Few..." A complex tale with little payoff, sadly. I assume the title is a reference to the Sergio Leone western but the translator didn't get it.
"Silence Is Golden." Horrible sexist piece of crap. This is exactly what's most wrong with the Italian male, their mommy complexes, and their violent, childlike self-absorption.
"Caput Mundi." Well written, truly hard boiled, but kinda fizzled at the end.
"1988." Quite witty and well written. So the collection begins and ends with a bang but sadly sags quite a bit in the middle.
October 22, 2013
"When in Rome..."
"Even today, after two years of Roman vacations, I get lost in the center of the city as soon as I leave the perpendicular line of the Corso. For someone accustomed to the perfect symmetry of Manhattan, the twisting streets of the Italian capital seem a labyrinth of squares and narrow alleys, all the same: a fountain, a column, a flaking wall, a café, a market stall, a wild dog, a motorcycle, a beggar, a group of American or Japanese tourists, another fountain" (extract from Roman Holidays, a Rome Noir short story, by Enrico Franceschini).
Recognise Rome from this short description? The lovely indecipherable impenetrable city with a history going back two and a half thousand years; and this is just one of many descriptions that pepper the book of short stories "Rome Noir" edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski. A cocktail of 16 stories set around the capital from Stazione Termini to the Via Appia Antica, Fiumicino to the Villa Borghese. Some stories are like gossamer veils enveloping and captivating, some are downright dark, and others culminate in murderous intent. Others are visceral in their storyline, some are seamy, but there is something for everyone. Tour the city through this collection and get to know areas off the beaten tourist track and experience the stories through the eyes of its citizens.
Off for a Chinotto*. Cheers
* Chinotto [kiˈnɔtto] is a type of carbonated soft drink produced from the juice of the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree (Citrus myrtifolia).
"Even today, after two years of Roman vacations, I get lost in the center of the city as soon as I leave the perpendicular line of the Corso. For someone accustomed to the perfect symmetry of Manhattan, the twisting streets of the Italian capital seem a labyrinth of squares and narrow alleys, all the same: a fountain, a column, a flaking wall, a café, a market stall, a wild dog, a motorcycle, a beggar, a group of American or Japanese tourists, another fountain" (extract from Roman Holidays, a Rome Noir short story, by Enrico Franceschini).
Recognise Rome from this short description? The lovely indecipherable impenetrable city with a history going back two and a half thousand years; and this is just one of many descriptions that pepper the book of short stories "Rome Noir" edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski. A cocktail of 16 stories set around the capital from Stazione Termini to the Via Appia Antica, Fiumicino to the Villa Borghese. Some stories are like gossamer veils enveloping and captivating, some are downright dark, and others culminate in murderous intent. Others are visceral in their storyline, some are seamy, but there is something for everyone. Tour the city through this collection and get to know areas off the beaten tourist track and experience the stories through the eyes of its citizens.
Off for a Chinotto*. Cheers
* Chinotto [kiˈnɔtto] is a type of carbonated soft drink produced from the juice of the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree (Citrus myrtifolia).
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December 8, 2016Free e-book advent calendar from Akashic Books: Download Rome Noir for FREE until midnight, December 08, 2016!
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Comes in DRM-free mobi or epub, and you don't have to sign in or up for anything.
August 12, 2010
Akashic puts out a whole series of Noir (Baltimore, Istanbul, DC, Paris, etc.), and all of the ones I've read are good. I especially like this one because I love Rome. Unlike most of the other Noir collections, women writers are well represented (half of the writers are women).
July 28, 2018
Κάτω από την ομπρέλα του noir, μικρές ιστορίες σε διαφορετικός ύφος και genre, κάποιες πολύ καλές κάποιες λιγότερο (φοβάμαι πως ίσως φταίει λίγο και η μετάφραση). Ενδιαφέρουσα συλλογή, θα αναζητήσω κι άλλες πόλεις από τη συλλογή.
January 21, 2022
Like with a lot of anthologies, there were several that were pretty good and several that were “meh.” Personally, there were too many stories of men stalking women to earn more than three stars.
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May 12, 2015Rome Noir looks beyond the tourist facade of Italy's capital. This is the real city of Fellini, Pasolini, and countless other major artists who devoted their lives to depicting its grandeur and decadence.Brand-new stories from: Antonio Scurati, C.D. Formetta, Diego De Silva, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, Francesca Mazzucato, Marcello Fois, Gianrico Carofiglio, Carlo Lucarelli, Maxim Jakubowski, Evelina Santangelo, Nicola LaGioia, Tommaso Pincio, Antonio Pascale, Nicoletta Vallorani, Giuseppe Genna, and others.Chiara Stangalino is an organizer of the Courmayeur Noir In Festival. She lives in Turin, Italy.Maxim Jakubowski is a British editor and writer. He reviews crime fiction for the Guardian and runs London's Crime Scene Festival.
May 2, 2011
Only two stars for this one, because I didn't get as vivid a feel for the city itself as in other collections. Many of the stories seemed as though they could be happening anywhere and the presence of the city itself seemed to be missing.
December 3, 2016
Expect for the first story, not a single one resonated with me. Maybe there were just so many of them that made it impossible to actually connect with characters, maybe not. Stories weren't really bad, just felt kinda lifeless. Perhaps it will sit better in a second read?
March 18, 2012
OK, I didn't actually finish this one. it's a collection of short stories and the odd one was readable
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews