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Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi ISBN: 9-781035-908639 Head of Zeus – 2024 • Sam Hawkmoor review An intriqued filled coming of age story in a mythical Italy

For several years now I have been wondering whatever happened to Paolo Bacigalupi. He has been one of the most prescient writers of speculative dystopian fiction in America. His Windup Girl envisioned a post climate changed world where most of the world’s population starved to death eating nutrition free food.  All of his fiction, whether for adult or YA, was focused on the inevitable decline of America, the societal divisions between rich and poor. His Water Knife correctly forecast the coming water crisis as North vs. South fight over water rights and kill off cities. (Say goodbye to Phoenix).
            So imagine my surprise to discover he was been writing all this time a magnum opus novel about a mythical Italianate past, not Rome, something more ancient than that, where people can still collect the remains of long perished Dragons. A Renaissance story perhaps. After all, it was Rome that gave their empire coinage and Genoa that invented banking in 1407, the oldest bank in the world, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena founded in 1472 is still going.
            Casual glances at Navola might mistake this for a Games of Thrones clone and indeed this is a novel about power and there is much bloodshed, but more interestingly this is a story about the power of money or ‘promise’ of money. If you are familiar with the term promissory note you may not know that it is a legal instrument and should you so wish and hold a signed note you can present it to a bank and they will pay out on demand. This is the foundation of the Regulai Bank and family. In three generations they have risen from humble merchants to kingpins who control trade, all the wealth and wield power over Le Cerulea, what is in effect the whole Mediterranean.
            How they made their money and held onto it is isn’t this story however, although to be sure there is much resentment over it.
            This is the story of young Davico di Reluglai being raised to take over the family business. Trained in all the ways of banking and numbers and judging risk. All promissory notes are a risk, so judgement is a skill.
            Davico is reluctant to fulfil this role. His nature isn’t cruel. He loves plants and animals and would secretly like to be a physician and healer, but it hard to go against family expectations. So this the story of a boy who loves his horse, Stub and his dog Lazy and cares not for the finer things. He is very much drawn to the relic in his father’s library of a fossilised Dragon’s eye. This will have much importance for him much later in this tale.
            His father gives him a sister Celia, held captive from a banished family to guarantee their loyalty. Davico and Celia grow up to be fast friends. She is smarter than him and just as good on horseback or at swordplay. Their developing relationship is the true foundation of this story and like the rest of the cast are finely drawn - you would know these characters if you met them in the street.
            Outside the Regulai household there is seething resentment of their power, or their money and people plot and scheme, especially as they perceive the boy not to be as ruthless as his father. As Davico approaches his name day he will join his father at the head of the bank (the plank) as they called the negotiating position. He is deeply anxious about this and still reluctant. It is a huge responsibility.
            Navola is a lifestory, shades of Michael Corleone’s reluctant journey to power I suppose in The Godfather. Not everyone relishes power or even riches. Navola mirrors the rise and fall of the Roman Emperors, complete with treachery and stabbings. It seems there really is no one you can trust when you are so rich.
            Bacigalupi has written an extraordinary tale of intrigue and coming of age, an insightful novel about growing up around others who place impossible demands upon you. After a slow start during world-building it becomes tale of passion and fate with vividly drawn characters, and in the end becomes a somewhat shocking tale.

© Sam Hawksmoor 9.4.24
Author of The Restoration of Ami & The Repossession of Genie Magee

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