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The Minotaur at Calle Lanza
by Zito Madu
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The Minotaur at Calle Lanza is an unforgettable travel memoir about the mysterious transformations that may lurk inside us all. Venice, 2020. As a pandemic rages across the globe, Zito Madu finds himself in a nearly deserted city, its walls and basilicas humming with strange magic. As he wanders a haunted landscape, we see him twist further into his own past: his family's difficult immigration from Nigeria to Detroit, his troubled relationship with his father, the sporadic joys of daily life and solitude, his experiences with migration, poverty, foreignness, racism, and his own rage and regret. But as it is with all labyrinths, after finding its center, will he come away unscathed, or will he transform into the gripping, fantastical monstrousness that's out to consume him whole?…
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"Zito Madu’s The Minotaur at Calle Lanza is truly unlike any other autobiography I’d read before. It’s the story of the author’s residency in Venice during the pandemic, which already seemed like a surreal experience, but then the author introduces the mythic Minotaur in an unexpected and surprising plot twist. Madu weaves in family stories, of growing up as the son of Nigerian immigrants in Detroit, with his experience as a Black man moving and living in spaces where there are very few Black people. The book really transports the reader to Venice, and then uses a surreal twist to bring to the foreground Madu’s experiences with being Othered. I don’t want to give away too much. People should just read it! It’s a smart, deeply engrossing book."
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