Reading Venice

VENICE-O-METER 3
Novel set in several Italian cities, including Venice

English version translated by Stuart Schoffman, Italian version translated by Alessandra Shomroni

This book was originally published in Hebrew, but it’s set in Venice and another Italian city, and the author made some revisions specifically for the Italian version. I became so obsessed with this novel that after I read the English translation I gave my mom the Italian translation, which I also read — giving my mom presents of books I want to get my hands on is a constant in my book-buying strategy.
It’s an enigmatic book that strongly echoes J.M. Coetzee’s Jesus trilogy, both in terms of the themes (the precocious, headstrong child, the presence of a dog who’s as much of a character as the humans, the choice of seemingly random geographical setting that doesn’t mesh with the rest of the author’s œuvre, a critique of the education system…) and language (the unadorned prose, lines from the seemingly straightforward dialogue that resonates in your head for months,). 

And Venice?
In the English version, none of the locations are named and you can only assume Venice is where the grandmother lives — where else do you go around in gondola? The Italian version explicitly names Venice, but doesn’t get very specific about places. Maybe because from the young protagonist’s point of view, landmarks are personal (school…. the cathedral…. the workshop of grandmother’s seamstress….) rather than topographical.
It’s just one of this book’s mysteries. I read it before I started working on the map for this site, so I might re-read it to see if I can pinpoint any sites at all.​