The Shape of Water (novel)

Last updated
The Shape of Water
Theshapeofwater.jpg
Italian first edition cover
Author Andrea Camilleri
Original titleLa forma dell’acqua
Translator Stephen Sartarelli
Country Italy, Sicily
Language Italian/Sicilian
Series Inspector Salvo Montalbano, #1
Genre Crime, Mystery novel
PublisherSellerio (Italy)
Publication date
10 March 1994
Published in English
2002
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages173 pp
256 pp (Eng. trans.)
ISBN 0-330-49286-1 (Eng. trans.)
OCLC 59316518
Followed by The Terracotta Dog  

The Shape of Water ( Italian: La forma dell'acqua) is a 1994 novel by Andrea Camilleri, [1] translated into English in 2002 by Stephen Sartarelli. [2]

Contents

It is the first novel of the Inspector Montalbano series.

Plot summary

The Mannara where Luparello's found dead (location used in the TV series) FornacePenna.JPG
The Mànnara where Luparello's found dead (location used in the TV series)

Silvio Luparello, an engineer, developer and aspiring politician from an aristocratic construction family, dies of a heart attack while having sex with his nephew and lover Giorgio at his beach house. The nephew panics, and, wanting to protect his uncle from the embarrassing circumstance of his death and not trusting himself to be able to move his uncle's body due to his epilepsy, calls his uncle's friend and political crony, Attorney Rizzo, for help. Rizzo assures the nephew he will take care of it, but then, instead of trying to help, attempts to take advantage of the situation and betrays his friendship with Luparello by attempting to use his death to gain leverage over his political opponent, Secretary Cardamone. This he does by attempting to cast Cardamone's Swedish daughter-in-law Ingrid as Luparello's lover and implicating her in his death – at the scene of a seamy outdoor brothel.

The film version starts off the morning after the death at the outdoor brothel, with two surveyors working as garbage collectors. They discover the body and contact Attorney Rizzo in an attempt to curry favor with him and maybe get proper surveyor's jobs by giving him the chance to move Luparello's body in order to avoid the embarrassment of Luparello being found at the outdoor brothel, dead with his pants down. Rizzo rebuffs the garbage men, much to their surprise, as he is known to be Luparello's friend and ally.

Meanwhile, one of the garbage men finds Ingrid's very valuable solid gold jewel-encrusted necklace, planted by Rizzo's Ingrid look-alike as part of the frame-up. The handbag with her initials in which she normally kept the necklace was also planted at the brothel in case somebody walked off with the necklace.

Montalbano, with the help of his boyhood friend and outdoor brothel pimp Gegè, and with the help of Luparello's wife (who tips Montalbano to the fact that somebody must have dressed Luparello because his underwear was on inside out), figures out that the garbage men have the necklace and also that Attorney Rizzo is the bad guy. Montalbano initially suspects Ingrid's involvement because of her relationship with Luparello which he formerly thought sexual, but she convinces Montalbano that she wasn't involved. Montalbano then destroys the planted evidence against her and makes sure that Rizzo pays a reward for the necklace (so that the garbage man and his wife can send their sick child out of the country for proper medical treatment).

The story wraps up with Montalbano "playing God" by ignoring a gun that he finds in the beach house, thus giving Giorgio the opportunity to avenge his uncle's betrayal by beating up and killing Rizzo. In the end though Giorgio, too, dies – in a car accident – after previously having had one due to an epileptic seizure that required him to wear a neck brace (which we assume is the same one that Montalbano found at the outdoor brothel, and which we also assume was there because of being used by Rizzo and the Ingrid look-alike to make Luparello appear to be alive during the "sex" act at the outdoor brothel).

Characters

Reception

Publishers Weekly said the ending of The Shape of Water might not please readers from the United States in comparison to European readers. [3] Kirkus Reviews said Montalbano was the Italian version of Raymond Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe. [4]

Adaptation

It was first adapted for television by RAI with Luca Zingaretti in the TV series Inspector Montalbano . The episode was first aired on 2 May 2000. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvio Berlusconi</span> Italian politician and media tycoon (1936–2023)

Silvio Berlusconi was an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013; a member of the Senate of the Republic from 2022 until his death in 2023, and previously from March to November 2013; and a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2022, and previously from 1999 to 2001. With a net worth of US$6.8 billion as of June 2023, Berlusconi was the third-wealthiest person in Italy at the time of his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickey Mouse universe</span> Fictional universe involving Mickey Mouse and related Disney characters

The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Pluto and Goofy as the primary members, and many other characters related to them, being most of them anthropomorphic animals. The universe originated from the Mickey Mouse animated short films produced by Disney starting in 1928, although its first consistent version was created by Floyd Gottfredson in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip. Real-world versions also exist in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, called Mickey's Toontown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Camilleri</span> Italian writer (1925–2019)

Andrea Calogero Camilleri was an Italian writer.

<i>Lincoln</i> (novel) 1984 novel by Gore Vidal

Lincoln: A Novel is a 1984 historical novel, part of the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal. The novel describes the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and extends from the start of the American Civil War until his assassination. Rather than focus on the Civil War itself, the novel is centred on Lincoln's political and personal struggles. Though Lincoln is the focus, the book is never narrated from his point of view ; Vidal instead writes from the perspective of key historical figures. He draws from contemporary diaries, memoirs, letters, newspaper accounts, the biographical writings of John Hay and John Nicolay, and the work of modern historians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ammar al-Baluchi</span> Prisoner at Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Ammar al-Baluchi or Amar al-Balochi is a Pakistani citizen who has been in American custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006. He was arrested in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2003 before being transferred; the series of criminal charges against him include: "facilitating the 9/11 attackers, acting as a courier for Osama bin Laden and plotting to crash a plane packed with explosives into the U.S. consulate in Karachi." He is a nephew of the Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who served as a senior official of al-Qaeda between the late 1980s and early 2000s; and a cousin of the Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who played a key role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the high-profile Bojinka plot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giorgio Napolitano</span> President of Italy from 2006 to 2015

Giorgio Napolitano was an Italian politician who served as the 11th president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first to be re-elected to the office. In office for 8 years and 244 days, he was the longest-serving president, until the record was surpassed by Sergio Mattarella in 2023. He also was the longest-lived president in the history of the Italian Republic, which has been in existence since 1946. Although he was a prominent figure of the First Italian Republic, he did not take part in the Constituent Assembly of Italy that drafted the Italian constitution; he is considered one of the symbols of the Second Italian Republic, which came about after the Tangentopoli scandal of the 1990s. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics have sometimes referred to him as Re Giorgio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvo Montalbano</span> Fictional character by Andrea Camilleri

InspectorSalvo Montalbano is a fictional police chief who is a brilliant detective created by Italian writer Andrea Camilleri in a series of novels and short stories. The books were written in a mixture of Italian, strict Sicilian, and Sicilian Italian.

Band of Gold is a British television crime drama series, written and created by Kay Mellor, first broadcast on ITV on 12 March 1995. Produced by Granada Television, the series revolves around the lives of a group of prostitutes who live and work in Bradford's red-light district. Principal actresses in the series include Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, Barbara Dickson, and Samantha Morton. Three series of Band of Gold were produced, with the final episode broadcast on 1 December 1997.

<i>The Golden Ball and Other Stories</i> 1971 short story collection written by Agatha Christie

The Golden Ball and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1971 in an edition priced at $5.95. It contains fifteen short stories, all of which were originally published from 1925 through 1934. The stories were taken from The Listerdale Mystery, The Hound of Death and Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerio Ricetti</span> Italian-Australian hermit (1898–1952)

Valerio Ricetti was an Italian-Australian hermit who lived mainly in a cave in the Griffith area for a period of 23 years. Working only at night and in the early morning hours so that he would not be seen, he turned the cave into his own private "utopia" complete with kitchen, chapel, landscaping, pathways, stone walls, stone stairs, paths, terraced gardens and cisterns for water supply.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Wilkins Field</span> English painter

Edwin Wilkins Field was a British lawyer and painter who committed much of his life to law reform.

The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant included in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Its outdoor seating area is the largest al fresco dining area in Chicago. It has placed among the leaders in citywide best-of competitions for best burger and is widely praised for its views.

<i>Inspector Montalbano</i> (TV series) Italian television series

The Inspector Montalbano television series are Italian police procedural stories. Based on Andrea Camilleri's detective novels, they are located in the imaginary town of Vigàta, Sicily, which is based on Camilleri's native Porto Empedocle. The series star Salvo Montalbano is the police chief, or commissario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara von Hatzfeldt</span> American heiress

Princess Clara von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg was an American heiress and member of the Huntington family who married into the princely House of Hatzfeld.

References

  1. Meek, Karen. "Review - The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri". www.eurocrime.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  2. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri | PenguinRandomHouse.com.
  3. "The Shape of Water. (Mystery)". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 249, no. 13. 1 April 2002. p. 56.
  4. "The Shape of Water. (Mystrey) [sic]". Kirkus Reviews. Vol. 70, no. 7. 1 April 2002. p. 454.
  5. La forma dell'acqua (2000) at IMDb OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg