Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, Juliana Schiavinatto is a promising young writer with a talent for creating memorable protagonists. Her debut novel, The Way of Angels, imagines an alternative future in which Italy is not a country but an island ruled by two very different yet brilliant minds: a centurion with an iron-fisted sensibility, and an aging, traumatized war veteran who barely accepts his fate. When the war finally ends, they are reunited, and the centurions begins to benefit from his position as head of state, while the traumatized war veteran struggles to deal with his own identity crisis. This book feels like it could easily be part of a sci-fi thriller, given its set in such a fantastical universe. It is also infused with a sense of humanity, even if the character’s nationalities don’t seem to factor into the story’s particulars. Schiavinatto includes a few well-placed poems, and she creates a wonderfully textured world with equally well-crafted characters.
But if it is her take on national identity that really stands out, it is her description of how this transformation affects a relationship. Nationality often complicates relationships; after all, what is true for one is false for another, right? This is why the centuria, or older generation, often finds itself at odds with the more youthful and progressive ones. A relationship between two people with such fundamentally different nationalities, however, is a relationship in constant tension, and Juliana Schiavinotti’s debut novel presents a wonderfully vivid portrait of how a broken heart sets that tension ablaze.
A book review of The Way of Angels by Juliana Schiavinotti: “A refreshing look at how the self can become the identity of the other. Using everyday life as a window into a protagonist’s past, she weaves her feelings of identity with her experience of the present. Aka-Senna and Jasmine, two South Sea nurses, have just begun a relationship that will change their lives forever… When a young South African frees his birth parents, he assumes his birth certificate and name, believing himself to be of German descent. But when his father decides to marry a white woman, the young man must decide whether to uphold his heritage or let his gender make him part of a movement that will erase his identity.”