The Imaginary Life of a Laurel Tree

An Italian teacher’s relationship with his male student sparks legal and personal turmoil in this compelling novel of truth, desire, and power.

A group of old friends are unexpectedly reunited in Calabria for a dinner party. When the conversation turns from reminiscing about their teen years to recent allegations against a local teacher, Marco Ferro, it unsettles the narrator. Days later, still reeling from the news, he sets out to learn more, grappling with the murky facts. His search rekindles a relationship with his former high school friend—Federica, beautiful and spoiled, married to Lino, and the mother of three boys—which in turn unspools in complicated and unanticipated ways. 

The action then moves to Tunisia, London, and Rome, in an incessant pursuit of who tells and who is told. In the end, it is the story of Marco Ferro and his young student Yussef, played out in both courtrooms and newspaper columns, that restores truth to the complicated sentimental geometries of the narrator and Federica.

Exploring secrets and entangled power dynamics, Mario Fortunato’s timely new novel raises questions that rarely have simple or unequivocal answers.