De Angelis, an inscrutable northerner, is travelling to a small town perched in Sicily’s hinterland to negotiate a real estate transaction, only to find himself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy. While en route, the train he’s on mysteriously breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a squalid whistle stop. What follows is a web of unsettling events, involving child prostitution and brazen killings. And at the heart of it: an alluring blue-eyed girl, Marinella. The chance encounter with the eleven-year-old traps him in a psychological and moral cul-de-sac, leaving him no choice but to confront the type of man he really is. Told in a cinematic, darkly humorous genre-bending prose, The Transaction traces De Angelis’ Kafkaesque descent into deviancy.

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Born in Sicily, Guglielmo D’Izzia is an actor, writer, cinephile and gourmand. His artistic pursuits have led him to Rome, NYC, and eventually Toronto, where he now resides. He's a graduate of the creative writing program at University of Toronto’s SCS. The Transaction, his debut novel, won the 2016 Marina Nemat Award.