The Everlasting

by Katy Simpson Smith

From a supremely talented author comes this brilliant and inventive novel, set in Rome in four different centuries, that explores love in all its various incarnations and ponders elemental questions of good and evil, obedience and free will that connect four unforgettable lives.

Spanning two thousand years, The Everlasting follows four characters whose struggles resonate across the centuries: an early Christian child martyr; a medieval monk on crypt duty in a church; a Medici princess of Moorish descent; and a contemporary field biologist conducting an illicit affair.

Outsiders to a city layered and dense with history, this quartet separated by time grapple with the physicality of bodies, the necessity for sacrifice, and the power of love to sustain and challenge faith. Their small rebellions are witnessed and provoked by an omniscient, time-traveling Satan who, though incorporeal, nonetheless suffers from a heart in search of repair.

As their dramas unfold amid the brick, marble, and ghosts of Rome, they each must decide what it means to be good. Twelve-year old Prisca defiles the scrolls of her father’s library. Felix, a holy man, watches his friend’s body decay and is reminded of the first boy he loved passionately. Giulia de’ Medici, a beauty with dark skin and limitless wealth, wants to deliver herself from her unborn child. Tom, an American biologist studying the lives of the smallest creatures, cannot pinpoint when his own marriage began to die. As each of these conflicted people struggles with forces they cannot control, their circumstances raise a profound and timeless question at the heart of faith: What is our duty to each other, and what will God forgive?

 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Italy, Historical, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club

331 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 2020

About the author

Katy Simpson Smith attended Mount Holyoke College and received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She has been working as an Adjunct Professor at Tulane University and is the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835. Her debut novel, The Story of Land and Sea, was published by Harper in August 2014. She lives in New Orleans.

Reviews

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going to try my best to be short on words so I don’t give anything away. That’s not the easiest for me! Plus, I really want to share this book with you.

First of all, I love that cover. It captivates me, and I love how rich and bold it is, suiting the feel of the book. In a nutshell, The Everlasting is set in Rome during four different centuries and spanning two thousand years. Epic, right? But this isn’t a history text book. It’s "a story of love in all its forms.” The time periods are today, The Renaissance, the Middle Ages, and Ancient Rome.

The Everlasting is a remarkable, absorbing story. I’ve read nothing like it. It required some brain power on my part to keep the details straight, but I expect that from historical fiction. If this sounds remotely interesting to you, I hope you’ll give this one a try. It’s a reading experience that will stay with me.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broad and ambitious in scope, The Everlasting endeavors to capture the history and spirit of Rome across generations. It opens with an epigraph from the poem "Adonais" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

"Go thou to Rome—at once the Paradise,
The grave, the city, and the wilderness."

The plot begins in 2015 with a section titled "The Wilderness," which introduces us to Tom, an American field biologist studying a group of crustaceans called ostracods. Though still married, Tom spends his days alone while his wife is back in California with their daughter, and reflects on the failed state of their marriage. This novel is dense at times, and Tom's sections offer little reprieve; the crumbling marriage and allure of an enigmatic Italian woman a sort of clichéd setup that doesn't feel like it quite earns its length, or the reader's investment. This section does, however, establish the novel's central theme: desire and temptation, and whether succumbing to temptation is inherently immoral.

You can read my full review HERE, and a piece I wrote about books that span huge lengths of time HERE.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly good historical fiction, an intellectual feast that’s deeply satisfying not so much for its characters, although several of them are outstanding, as for its writing, structure (four main characters, eight chapters set during four time periods of Roman history), deep but not showy research (Smith is a historian as well as a novelist), and themes like the varieties of love & faithfulness and the nature of the body. Bonus joy: a sorrowful Satan offering parenthetical commentary throughout. PS: Now I know what a putridarium is. :-)

[Mila Daskalova · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was hard to immerse myself in this book and impossible to suspend my disbelief. The writing style is sensitive, beautiful and insightful at times, but it seems to be very self-consciously so - to the point of disingenuity. It frequently overflows, more overwhelming than enchanting, almost showing off. There is a lot of noise, not the least because the narrative is constantly interrupted by Satan's ironic interjections, adding yet another heavy dose of conundrums to ponder.

Far from objecting to the challenge, I was frustrated with the novel rushing to answer its very own questions, often as soon as they were asked. The characters, though original and at first sight intriguing, were there to tell me how the world was, through their experiences of forbidden love, and I had to take it. And though I was not necessarily disagreeing with the trajectory of the reflections and the conclusions that were being reached, the experience was weirdly forced. Reading felt like I was being spoonfed my favourite food, heavily spiced to the point of inedibility, while the person feeding yelled triumphantly, 'See? I made you your favourite meal!'

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

Smdh I think I hated this! Not sure why, because this kind of book should have been exactly my shit! Medieval monks and Roman martyrs yes pls! Idk I think it took itself too seriously. And there were some hokey literary decisions like incessant parentheticals in which Satan spoke in the second person to the four main characters

[Alena]

After falling asleep every time I tried to read this I decided it wasn’t for me.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this was good literature that just wasn't a writing style that I like. Too many times a character wasn't given a name, or she hopped around chronologically (within a story), so it was hard to tell what was going on.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit it: I picked this book up because of its cover. I was walking through my library's new fiction section, saw the vibrant statues on the cover, and couldn't help but pick it up. A quick look at the synopsis and I was willing to give it a shot.

Never have I felt more vindicated for being a cover whore. This book was so carefully rendered, so deftly achieved. Four lives, one narrator. Five voices, one story. I applaud Simpson Smith for her abilities to take what could be written off as too literary, too high-brow, and molding it into something that speaks to the very basest of human needs, wants, desires.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to devouring Simpson Smith's past and future works. Five stars.

[Dollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that I had read a few reviews about this book before I read it. I never figured out who the narrator was and had to look it up after I finished the book. Now that I know, I’ll have to eventually reread it and I’ll probably understand the story a lot better. This story starts with a scientist who studies tiny little water creatures in Rome. He loves his young daughter, but realizes he no longer really loves his wife. After learning about him, the story then changes. The author takes the reader back further and further in time and tells different stories about the people who lived in Rome in different periods, the one thing linking them all is an ancient fishhook. Although all of the stories about these people were interesting and beautifully written, my favorite tale was about Felix, an older monk, who worked in the putridarium, caring for the deceased bodies of monks who had died. This is a good book but be prepared for a lot of religion – the story is, after all, about Rome. Also remember, it’s never explained in the story who the narrator is. I kept thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?” not realizing how close I was to the answer.

[soph ☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read a book that has so entirely disarmed my cynicism and stripped me of my critic’s armor in ages. Not only is The Everlasting a carefully researched and tenderly crafted love letter to Rome sealed with the wax of enviable prose, but it is a profoundly humanizing novel. Historians— by which I implicate all contemporaries shouldering modernity who sneak glances behind us to fill the peripheral shapes of antiquated cultures with educated guesses— have a funny ontological urge to exoticize, alienate, infantilize, and fetishize all who came before us. We think of progress as we think of time: linear. We forget we’re not the first generation alive to be people. We forget that throughout history, every person has only ever been a person— with bad haircuts, dreams, and crushes, jobs both enviable and otherwise, with itches burrowed in both body and soul, begging for the pressed crescent of a fingernail. Katy Simpson Smith has rendered a singular geographic location in four distinct time periods traversing two thousand years, detailing the everlasting joys and sorrows of not necessarily what it means— but rather how it feels— to be human.

[Maggie Rotter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four eras. Four sets of characters, each of whom could support a novel. An omnipotent watcher whose identity soon becomes clear. The Everlasting started slowly for me, likely because one more troubled modern marriage didn't immediately grab me. But as layers of narrative settled like sediment and objects appeared linking stories, I was hooked. Highly recommended if you enjoyed Cloud Atlas, Wolf Hall, Jim Crace,s Harvest.

[Kurt Neumaier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helena is never getting her copy of this book back!

[Lorilin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Everlasting is a unique novel. It is comprised of four, loosely-connected stories spanning two centuries, all set in Rome. We hear from a modern-day biologist, a Christian child martyr, a medieval monk, and a princess—all of them pondering philosophical questions about love, relationships, identity, faith, joy, and meaning.

MY THOUGHTS
I really enjoyed Free Men, so I was excited to read The Everlasting. I’m so disappointed to say that I absolutely hated this book. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood, but I found it to be clunky, confusing, and pretentious. I was never able to feel connected to the characters or to the story. And I think the main reason for that is because the story isn’t meant to be the focus. The questions are the focus, the pondering. It’s a “let’s get in the van and drive” novel, and books like that always irritate me.

BUT for the people who enjoy that sort of thing—and I can see plenty of other reviewers on Goodreads who do—you may very well love this book. I am still giving it two stars, though, boo.

Thank you to Harper and Net Galley for the ARC!

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars--I really liked it.

Historical/literary fiction that takes place during four eras of Rome, with four characters (a modern academic, a Medici princess, an early Christian monk, and an even earlier Christian martyr). The stories are tied together through a relic that gets passed down (a fish hook) and through the voice of the narrator--who is Satan. (Yes, Satan himself.) A poignant, occasionally whimsical/occasionally melancholy musing about history, religion, free will, love, and the spirit.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What does it mean to be "everlasting"? I am reminded of the old Arab proverb about the pyramids: "Man fears time, but time fears the pyramids." The city of Rome may not be everlasting on quite the same par as the pyramids, but it was founded in 753 BCE and thus is almost three thousand years old. It comes by its title of "the eternal city" honestly.

Those 3,000 years of history are well-documented and provide a trove of subjects for writers to elaborate upon and from Shakespeare to the present, they've never been shy about doing it. Now comes a writer of historical fiction named Katy Simpson Smith, who I frankly had not heard of before, to give us a view of 2,000 years of that history. To do that she has employed a clever hook on which to hang her story. It is, in fact, a literal hook - a fishhook discovered in an archeological dig in 2015. Carbon dating showed it to have been forged around 130 CE. Smith takes us on the journey that this particular artifact has made through the centuries.

She begins with Tom, a biologist studying the smallest of creatures. He is involved in that archeological dig, and he is suffering from the early signs of multiple sclerosis and is about to go through a divorce.

Next, we head back to 1559 and meet Giulia de' Medici, a princess of Moorish descent, a widow who has recently embarked upon her second marriage. But she enters that marriage with a secret; she is pregnant and not by her new husband but by a secret lover. On the one hand, she wishes to rid herself of this inconvenience; on the other, she wonders about passing the child off as her husband's.

On to the ninth century, 896-897, where we meet Felix, a monk charged with keeping the monastery's crypt. He sits in a catacomb with his decomposing brothers who are seated on stone toilets through which their bodily liquids slowly drip. As he watches the most recently dead, his close friend, begin to decompose, he remembers a beautiful young man named Tomaso who he loved in his youth.

And finally, back to 165 CE and a twelve-year-old girl named Prisca. Prisca's father becomes involved in a new religious sect called Christianity. Prisca sits in the shadows when her father attends meetings and she absorbs the message of the dogma. She becomes inflexible and unquestioning, as only a teenager might, in accepting the truth of this sect as she understands it and that eventually leads to her martyrdom by the Rome of Marcus Aurelius.

Smith presents her stories in a series of eight chapters, two devoted to each character. The stories at their heart are about the love and faith of her characters, many kinds of love from adulterous and forbidden to religious and many kinds of faith, in oneself, a higher power, and one's fellow man. It's an ambitious scaffolding for a historical novel and I wanted to like it more than I did, but I found the writing a bit pedantic and occasionally full of itself and I didn't feel a real connection with any of the characters. The writer gets points of imagination and creativity and a considerable amount of research but I do wish the execution could have been more inspired.

[Nina Sankovitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and compelling read, filled with gorgeous writing and rich imagery, and really moving characters and plot line: I could not put this book down and enjoyed it so much! Four characters from four different eras in Rome - Early Christian, Middle Ages, Renaissance; and Modern Day - are connected not only by a fish hook held by each of them for a period of time, but also by questions of faith, identity, duty, and their search for joy. I found the parenthetical discourses really annoying (Satan offering more than his two cents way too often) and so I am only giving four stars. But the writing is simply gorgeous, the plot ingenious, and each of the four stories deeply moving. I love the way Smith writes and look forward to reading more of her work. I highly highly highly recommend this book.

[Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d like to be one of those people who can make their thoughts into words on command but alas, I am not. I really did think a lot reading this and maybe I’ll come back and write more. Very very good reflection on faith and on wanting more and on being good and on how people are not really so different across time.

First edit: I wrote down a quote from this book in my notes app that’s how good it is!!!!!

[Ella S · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first impression of this book was lukewarm, mostly because of the esoteric prose and obscure allusions Smith used, which gave the impression that she was writing a novel with her target audience being composed of hipster-y intellectuals. I found the diction to be quite annoying and stilted, making the reader work harder than necessary for a plot that seemed rather base.

However I was pleasantly surprised upon further reading as I adapted to Smith’s writing. While it was appeared heavy handed at first, it seemed to adapt into a simpler, albeit still very poetic, style. Once I got into it, it was not a bad read; I actually found a lot of quotes I really liked in it.

The concept of the book is very interesting! I love how Smith weaves four seemingly dissimilar stories around the city of Rome, a power symbol in her book. It’s commonly repeated that it is a city of history, religion, and most importantly — layers. Since the four perspectives in the book are told in reverse-chronological order, one can examine the layers of Rome as there are pealed back and exposed one after another, illustrating history as we may not normally see it.

Another symbol that Smith uses to intricately concatenate her characters’ stories is the fishhook, which all of her quartet come to possess at some time during their lives. Given the strong influence of Christianity in the book (with it being a main theme and all) it makes sense to use a biblical symbol to connect the characters. For me, it brings to mind the parable in which Jesus promises to make the fishermen “fishers of men” drawing new disciples into Christianity. Although the characters stray further and further from the religion relative to their proximity to the founding of it (the character from the present period being an atheist, whereas the one from the oldest period is a literal martyr for the faith), the fish hook remains a relic to ensnare each character into their own moral struggles and crises. It captures each of them in an intense ethical dilemma about the meaning of being human, and the significance of choosing between right and wrong.

Despite my doubts, this book actually turned out to be worth the read. Since I don’t normally read a lot of fiction, especially fiction this artistic, I found it a good way to push my boundaries as a reader. The writing is beautiful in a unique way, and while I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, it is a good pick if you enjoy historical fiction, prose, and most importantly — drama.

[Ava Butzu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up - I finally had to cry "uncle" half way through the aptly titled "The Everlasting." The reviews and blurb about it held so much promise, and it was just the type of humanities-based story I'd gravitate toward: Set in Rome, four characters spanning 2000 years linked together (by the tiniest of fish hooks) through time. A visiting American contemporary field biologist studying microscopic life forms becomes distracted as he falls in love with a stranger; a Medici princess in a loveless marriage struggles against an unexpected pregnancy and petty whisperings about her other-ness; a monk at a second-hand medieval church sits on crypt duty with his decaying brothers, reminiscing about his first love with his best friend; a young child martyr resists the rules of her family amid the making of Christianity. It all sounds so romantic, doesn't it?

But I didn't finish it. I was never drawn to any of the characters, and the writing seemed overblown and underwhelming. If you can wade through the untethered ethereal moments, the verbose ponderings and disconnected stream of consciousness of each of these characters, you're a better reader than I, my friends. I wish you happy reading and time travel into what was, for me, too Everlasting.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote a huge review for this and then lost it, so I’ll save all my big thoughts for bookclub (iykyk) but here’s a brief summary until I fix this review proper:
Felix and Guilia are perfect and I love them and their stories broke my heart; Prisca was so interesting and I felt she really shone out a lot of the time, but sometimes I struggled with reconciling her worldview with her choices; the less said about Tom and the more said about Tom’s daughter the better.

Overall, I love a nesting narrative that connects across time and really enjoy the massive time differences with this book in particular. Also interesting to see when and how my own personal (often knee-jerk) reactions aligned with the voice of Satan/the omniscient watcher of these stories, though that got a bit too gimmicky at times. Probably closer to 3.5 but overall deserves to be rounded up!

[Erin Goettsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are 4 loosely-connected stories all set in Rome in various centuries, and that premise was all I needed to get me on board (plus I saw the author speak and she was lovely and thoughtful). It’s pretty dense writing, and some of the centuries I cared WAY less about than others, but ultimately I really liked sort of... wading through the philosophical questions the stories were playing with. I loved the three historical settings. This was a very good reading experience for me.

[etherealfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really more of a 3.5 but I struggle with this author. And yet, the writing itself is genuinely good but I just cannot connect somehow. And yet I can't stop reading her books. I think this is a very weird "me" problem not an author problem. As an aside I wish like anything that we could rate books by the quarter. I have given so many three stars to books that were at least 3.25 or 3.50.

[Michael Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, genre-destroying novel. A masterwork. My interview in BOMB with Kathy Simpson Smith: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/kat...

[Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Everlasting is an ambitious historical novel that confronts literature's central questions about love and death in novel ways. The frailty of the body and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of mortality are explored through the lives of a 21st Century researcher in biology facing his own ominous medical symptoms and failing marriage, to a 16th Century noblewoman of mixed African heritage who must come to terms with her second marriage and problematic pregnancy, a 9th Century monk who tends bodies in the prutridarium while longing for his first male love, and a young Christian girl from the 2nd Century who faces her own first love and the dangers of martyrdom for her faith. All are connected by place, each story occurring in Rome in a different age, as well as by a religious relic and the interjections of the ultimate unreliable narrator, Satan, whose perspective spans all time, even our own future, and who suffers his own loss of love.

The subtitle could well be 'four linked novellas' instead of 'a novel,' and at times the story suffers a little from this device. Each character is given two chapters, which allows their stories to be developed more fully, though interweaving shorter chapters or passages might have made the stories feel more interconnected. Nonetheless, the thematic connections are there and though each story could stand on its own, the impact of telling them in concert is much greater.

As always, Katy Simpson Smith is precise in her details and accurate to the historical period. She brings in elements like the issue of race or burial practices that may seem unexpected but at the same time are revelatory. Her characters, imperfect as they are, are compelling—even Satan has his human side—and though the novel is anything but preachy, it grapples with serious spiritual questions that remain as relevant today as in the periods Smith transports us to. This is a novel that will stay with you long after you turn the last page and one that will reward rereading.

[Krystina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Everlasting is desperate for you to notice how clever it is. While it's busy showing off gaudy, dense sentences you read out loud once for mouthfeel and again for meaning, I think the book stands in its own way.
I ate it up. (Of course)
 
Initially I found the devil's asides tiresome, but somewhere between the year 896 and 897, she won me over. (Of course)
"Did you forget I was Eve's original friend?"

[Lisa Houlihan]

I loved this, particularly the bracketed intrusions into the third-person narrative [by whom, is an exercise for the reader]. I judge books by their covers (and titles) -- that is, I judge whether they might be interesting -- and this one bore out.

This is my favorite passage -- the most meaningful, the most human -- from the latter of two sections from the second character, though voiced by the [bracketed intruder]:
"She could guess what was inside {the envelope}. She wasn't in a position to respond to {any}. What would be the point? [To know! Didn't I teach you at the very beginning of time that the only purpose to this cut-short life given you by the brute above is to grab greedily at any scrap of knowledge you can, learning everything about everything because the only lasting damnation is ignorance? It's not just geometry, my tender chicken, it's gossip too; it's eavesdropping and snooping and asking rude questions and opening all letters, no matter the address, because the world is a book yearning to be read. Thank Eve, who felt obedience was a poor shadow of independence, may she be blessed for her scorn of unanswered questions. All I can say is this was written by your lover, and if you don't want to know his heart, you're closing the door of your own.]"

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginative and ambitious, with some nice descriptive writing of Rome in different epochs, adventure, and intricate linked plots. This deserves readers. It just didn't happen to be for me, at this time.

[Fredr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stories through two millenniums in Rome through characters and their personal struggles through life and faith.
The book starts a little slow but you are rewarded with growing story lines in each story. A book that will stay with you.

[zee reads]

my first ever dnf solely because the writing was soooo dense and i found myself constantly rereading sentences just to make sense of what was going on. maybe one day ill pick up the audiobook and see if that i like that better, but for right now it's too big brain for me to finish

[Katarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really unique and interesting book. It included a lot of interesting historical information (though not a lot of background information, so I had to Wikipedia search quite a few things). I think the four stories were captivating, but each character could have used a bit more development, and at times the stories felt rushed. I think I also could have done without the bracketed commentary from the omnipotent satanic voice (though some readers seem to have really enjoyed this). Would recommend - I learned a lot about Roman history!