Fabrizio's Return

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Ottawa author Mark Frutkin’s novel Atmospheres Apollinaire was a
finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and Ontario’s
Trillium Award. Fabrizio’s Return is his 10th book.

Frutkin states that his novel “is a story told in thirteen chapters
and eight acts” because 8 and 13 are known as Fibonacci numbers.
Innumerate readers are free to ignore his mathematical stunt, but they
should know about the plot’s three-ring circus.

Fabrizio Cambiati, a priest in 1682 Cremona, Italy, and his dwarf
manservant Omero climb the town’s clocktower to watch the return of a
comet through Fabrizio’s new telescope. But instead, they end up
watching a commedia dell’arte play in the town square and the arrival
in a carriage of a Jesuit, Michele Archenti, from the 18th century.
Archenti is the Vatican Devil’s Advocate assigned to investigate
“the late” Fabrizio’s qualifications for sainthood. Fast forward
to 1758 and Archenti is beginning his investigations of Fabrizio’s
life. The play in the town square is what connects the two time periods.

Although the story contains supernatural elements, historical Italy is
credibly recreated. Since Father Cambiati is an alchemist who may be of
Jewish descent, Frutkin’s homework assignments included canon law,
science, and Jewish–Christian relations. The author gratefully credits
friends and experts who assisted his research; readers will similarly be
appreciative. Frutkin also creatively captures the era’s bawdiness.
Fabrizio’s Return is a fine novel that will satisfy those who are not
content to merely view the past.