“The good thing about a church is that it doesn’t really serve any purpose, except sometimes to instill fear.”
A child with no name and no history knocks one night on the door of a house in an unknown town. It is immediately clear that it is not the first time he rings the door of someone he does not know, and also his need to find his father. The entire town will take charge of the search, until the issue goes out of fashion, and indirectly the little boy will be adopted by the community. In addition to shelter for the night and his education, he will also be given a name, with a special baptism, and for everyone he will be Popoff.
Although it is a classic narrative text, we experienced it as a theatrical text, and indeed many times we were lulled by the story as when as children we let ourselves go to the sound of a long nursery rhyme, with a pressing rhythm that, if you try to read aloud, can leave you breathless. In this regard, the Salento dialect used in the story is functional to outline the characters’ personalities and is easy to understand even for those who do not know it; we were also fascinated by the fact that he gave everyone a name that was indirectly a nickname, playing with words and with the moods of men.
Revelation. A masterpiece text, which few have realized, but which with the long life of the book, will bring the author the right recognition he deserves. Plot and style speak to the past, but are aimed at the future, a greatness confined to the pages of the text, capable of radiating far beyond, with noisy nouns transformed into verbs and silent adverbs dressed as adjectives. It seems strange, but after reading you will have a clearer picture of these words.
Popoff is perhaps the most beautiful literary surprise that has landed on our desk in the last twelve months. We feel admiration bordered by healthy envy for what the author has managed to create. A new road for literature that he has pioneered and that he must continue to beat, even when the climb becomes more arduous.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Graziano Gala, Popoff, Minimum Fax, Roma, 2024