Emperor of Ice-Cream [Hardback]

In TheEmperor of Ice Cream, Dan Gunn vividly captures a poignant, meaningful and exciting historical moment, that of Italian emigrants to Scotland before, during and after Mussolini’s entry into the Second World War.  Rich in descriptive detail and empathy with his vividly drawn characters, Gunn invites us not only to live their experience over the decades of this ambitious and fully realized novel’s scope, but as importantly, he allows us viscerally to understand the dense texture of the history they lived.  In prose characterized by simplicity and clarity, he unveils for us lives lived between love of country and the pernicious bigotry to which his exiles are subjected. His fully realized characters, entrapped in the competition between the seduction of and disgust with Fascism, share with us their enormously moving personal stories that intertwine with and are dictated by the tragic march of the twentieth century. In The Emperor of Ice-Cream, we are introduced to Lucia. Now in her eighties, this daughter of Italian immigrants looks back on her youth spent in Scotland during the 1920s and 30s. She remembers her three brothers, Dario, Giulio and Emilio, and the very different ways they lived through these decades: the eldest establishes the Edinburgh Fascist club, the second sets up a luxurious ice-cream parlor, the youngest hones his verbal skills for a future as a poet. Lucia learns what it is to be an immigrant and to wonder where ‘home’ is; she encounters religious sectarianism, idealism, and disillusionment. She experiences passion, hope, and disappointment. When she falls in love in Rome, it appears that happiness is Lucia’s for the asking, until unstoppable forces intervene—in both of her countries. With mounting tension, her tale leads through the rise of Fascism to the terrible moment in June 1940 when Mussolini declares war, and British Italians are interned. When hundreds are herded as ‘enemy aliens’ onto a ship bound for exile, among their number are two of her brothers. Determined to tell their story before it is too late, Lucia gives an account of one of the most shameful episodes in Britain’s Second World War. Through his portrayal of Lucia’s singular vision and voice, Dan Gunn has created an unforgettable character who, while registering the buffets of history, is—just possibly—writing herself toward some overdue inner peace.