Two substantial novellas – novels by any other name – make up this volume. A pair of texts is an unusual combination and seems to require them to reflect each other in some way, to be thematically connected. If there is a connection, it’s not obvious, but the two beautifully written stories are no less enjoyable for that. In the first, The Mirror, set in the early 16th century, a young woman, Oliva, prepares to become a nun. She has already lived in the convent in Venice for four years and is about to take the veil. While the arrival of an artist for whom Oliva is asked to sit ostensibly provides the focal event, the immersive evocation of the small community of nuns and their battle with the city authorities is captivating. In the second, The Velvet Gentleman, the eponymous gentleman is the composer Erik Satie, who narrates his own story from the afterlife. Changing personas with the elan of a proto David Bowie, Satie was an early surrealist, an impish eccentric, clinging to his childishness as the source of his capacity for wonder. A faithful and deeply affectionate portrait.
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