EFP 84: Olivia Laing on Fellini, Pasolini and The Silver Book

On this episode, host Dr Pasquale Iannone is joined by award-winning writer Olivia Laing to discuss their latest novel The Silver Book. Olivia’s book is part thriller, part queer love story set against the backdrop of the Italian film industry in the mid-1970s. Skilfully merging fact and fiction, The Silver Book shines a light on the work of real-life costume and production designer Danilo Donati. It tells of Nicholas, a young English man who flees London after a traumatic event and moves to Rome where he gets a job assisting Donati as he works on films by Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini at the legendary Cinecittà studios. While working together, Nicholas and Danilo become lovers and the novel weaves together events - both real and imagined - to extraordinary effect. Pasquale caught up with Olivia last month at the end of the UK paperback tour for The Silver Book. They discussed Olivia's approach to research and their writing process as well as their love of this twilight era of Italian cinema which yielded so many rich, complex, often controversial works.