Author(s): Roland Vernon

General Fiction

New York, 1926. Rocco Campobello, the great tenor - one of the most revered entertainers in the world - collapses on stage. He emerges from this brush with death a changed man: a fallen, but enlightened colossus, Casting off the mantle of celebrity, he embarks on a journey into his dark and sinister past which takes him back to his impoverished early life and to the city that made him: Naples. There he is forced to confront the truth about himself, his ruthlessness and treachery and to address ghosts from his past that he now seeks to lay to rest. Magnificent, flamboyant, yet impoverished and decaying, Naples is a city caught in the throes of change. The old ways, embodied in the activities of the camorra, the Italian mafia, are fighting to survive in the face of the brutal new politics of Mussolini and his Fascists. Don Graziani, head of one of the city's most respected - and fear - families, has much to lose if the great tenor's career falls apart. In league with Campobello's near-estranged wife, he conspires to re-launch the great voice in magnificent fashion.