Lucifer Over London: A Guide to the Adopted City

by Saleh Addonia (Contributor), Chloe Aridjis, Vanni Bianconi

London, a city of constant transition, transaction, translation. London does not exist; London is a language without a place and it is the aphasic city; it’s the mother of all languages.

Lucifer Over London is a new anthology nine narrative essays written by a host of international prize-winning authors including Chloe Aridjis, Viola di Grado, Xiaolu Guo, Joanna Walsh and Zinovy Zinik.

First published in Italy by Humboldt Books, Lucifer Over London is now appearing in English for the first time. This is a version of London as seen from the immigrants of recent migrations, of deportations to come, from those who create London even as they contradict it.

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[Juliano · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As the product of several migrations, there will always be a small nomad within me, and a tendency to feel foreign wherever I am.” So writes Chloe Aridjis in ‘World Outlook’, one of the nine narrative essays that comprise Lucifer Over London, an anthology edited by Influx Press, that first appeared in Italian in 2018. Its first essay ‘Oath to the Queen’ sets the tone, Xiaolu Guo considering Britishness, ideology, and ideas of home and assimilation, noting a thought that the “invisibility of ideology was part of the reason why [the English] had this knack for deflecting all direct engagements”. In Viola Di Grado’s ‘Getting Better’, translated by Antony Shugaar, the city offers a new way of thinking about addiction; Zinovy Zinik’s ‘My Private Prime Meridian’ is an exploration of talk and status in Soho spaces. Chloe Aridjis’ aforementioned essay explores history, home and visibility in the city — in its museums and galleries especially — and then, in ‘London, an exercise in learning’, Susana Moreira Marques reflects on personal, often familial growth in the city. There’s an essay on architecture and stairs, ‘The Loveless House’ by Vanni Bianconi, and the unusual photographic essay ‘Hop-On Hop-Off London’ by Wolfgang Lehrner. I very much enjoyed reading Saleh Addonia’s ‘The Film Shop’, its proximity to my Islington home, and Joanna Walsh’s Tube, which declares that London is at once “a matter of approach” and “language, always open to interpretation.”

[Nataly Garofoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucifer Over London moved me. It helped me empathize with immigrants in London and gave me a completely new perspective on the city. I live in Italy and my boyfriend is from London, and I often feel like I don't fully understand what Londoners say or how they behave. This book made me realize that the problem isn’t me—London is a city that contains entire worlds within it, and coming from the outside can leave you feeling constantly disoriented. But there's a strange beauty in that confusion, and this book captures it perfectly

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nine non-fiction (some more non-fictional than others) tales from London by immigrants (Chinese, Italian, Ethiopian, Swiss, Portuguese, Austrian, Brazilian, Russian and, um, non-London British) covering the whole gamut of London life, from taking the British citizenship test, to recovering from addiction in Camden, tube tales of love and longing and unemployment in Islington (not as much fun as it sounds), London's lessons in life, the weather and migration, the architecture of Berthold Lubetkin, Russian dissidence in Soviet times, and the view(s) from an open top bus tour.

Despite the evils of Brexit – the small town/suburban vision foisted on Londoners who didn't vote for it – the city is still the archetypal melting pot with everyone telling their story, all unique, all similar.