Multi-award-winning science fiction writer Paolo Bacigalupi’s latest novel Navola is a rich, immersive political thriller/fantasy set in an alternate Renaissance Italy. Like the Medici of Florence, the di Regulai family are merchant bankers in Navola, who, while not directly involved in war or politics, still control much of both via their financial wealth. They have extended their reach to well beyond Navola itself, with branches of their bank in neighboring cities, loans extended to politicians, governments and traders; they are involved in a vast array of exploits. Though on the surface they appear to be “humble bankers… holding money, making trade, extending credit,” they are the ones who call the shots in Navola. It is their generational wealth, their promises and guarantees, that keep the economy afloat—and keep them rich and in control.
We are introduced to Navola by the di Regulai scion Davico, an adult narrator who takes us back to when he was a teenager and learning the family business, being groomed to take over from his father Devonaci di Regulai. The entire story comes from Davico’s perspective, and he is an earnest storyteller who breaks the fourth wall a few times to correct himself when he has been economical with the truth:
That is a lie. I will not lie to you, I will not pretend before you, I will not dissemble, though it has become my habit because of all I have seen. I will tell you the truth, though it is not a wise thing, for I would have you know all of me.
Knowing all of Davico means knowing that he does not hold the system he is a part of in high regard, explaining that his “world is made up of petty kingdoms, greedy republics, mad principalities, rapacious dukedoms, and rotten empires,” making his disdain and bitterness clear.
The lands […] are rife with bandits and piracy. Under such circumstances, one would be forgiven for thinking that the might of the sword was the only law… An enemy is slain, his strongbox prized open. His women are raped. His wine is drunk from his silver goblets, served by his children in chains, their cheeks marked with the blood of their part, smeared there by the bloody boots of their vanquishers.
And even though the di Regulai concern themselves only with money matters on the surface of things, they do not hold back from violence when they need to prove their point; they are just as ready with their assassins and guards as any warlord may be, all the while keeping an absolute poker face.
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Navola
Maintaining an unreadable expression while having the ability to read others is what has allowed Devonaci di Regulai to commit to the long game. He plays everyone around him with precision and patience, setting plans into motion with incredible foresight and an uncanny ability to predict the actions of those around him. For Davico, it feels near impossible to rise to the level of control his father has. “How can I match him?” he asks, “he thinks and plans all the time… he plans in his sleep, even… Always he has another plan or plot. He is never trapped or wrong.” There is immense pressure on Davico to become the person he is expected to be, and Bacigalupi explores this classic stressful dynamic between father and son well. Davico is more interested in plants and medicine, but he is told, “You are Navolese, It is your birthright to understand the twisted path.”
This twisted path is what Bacigalupi leads us on. There are many times when, fully immersed in the gorgeous detailing, a reader may find themselves surprised and shocked at where they’ve been lead. You may find yourself forcibly slowing down and questioning why you are so willing to blindly hurtle down a violent, dark path when you can not guess what twists and turns may come your way.
Davico’s own desires and needs fall to the wayside as it becomes slowly evident to him (and us) that he is part of much larger machinations set up by his father; he is loved, but ultimately is very much another cog in his father’s wheel. Even what he lacks in terms of his political savvy is all a part of a larger plan that Davico cannot abide. He wonders if his “inheritance was to be not power, but pain,” if “we were all sick, for still we kept at the game, even though we all suffered.” Davico is earnest both as a narrator and a character, which does not help his predicament, but does create in the reader a certain sympathetic response, as we see how soft he is, how unlikely a candidate he is to eventually replace his father. There is much that he ignores or refuses to examine closely, such as his foster sister Celia’s status in their home—Celia, whose entire family was destroyed by Devonaci, who is not a part of the di Regulia but as Davico himself acknowledges, “lived as one of us, because my father found it useful.” Celia, who is a fascinating character, a perfect foil for Davico: clever, canny and duplicitous in the exact ways he is not.
The fantasy element of Navola is subtly woven into the thriller’s tapestry, though the novel begins with the lines “my father kept a dragon eye upon his desk. Am orb larger than a man’s skull, gone milky and crystalline but still burning with inner fire as if it retained life.” Dragons and magic are a part of Navola’s lore, but mostly regarded as the stuff of myth and legend. Teenage Davico has heard the stories but isn’t certain what he believes, until one day, while sneaking around his father’s library in search of erotica, Davico finds himself drawn mysteriously to the dragon’s eye. Drawn to it, he sees “storms whirled beneath its milky surface, the storms of its life still raging. Bright and jagged sparks, like lightening spikes during a summer storm, all howling winds and monsoon rain and the raging spear strikes…” He forms a strange, almost unholy connection to the ancient relic, a connection that he fears but cannot stop. What follows is an exciting bildungsroman, as Davico tries to manage the tides of political change he has been forced to play a part of.
While the first third of the novel is a conscientious set up of the larger plot (mirroring the plans of Davico’s father, if you will), there is no doubt from the start that this is a tense thriller, with the powerful worldbuilding that we know Bacigalupi for, though of course Navola is in a very different tack than his entire earlier repertoire. What will be familiar to Bacigalupi’s readers though, is the confident prose, the always convincing, consistent narrative voice, and the ease with which a reader is immersed into this extensive world.
Navola is a solid story of empire, fathers and sons, myths and magic, forbidden love and lust, sex and death, betrayals and lore. The novel thrums with Machiavellian power plays, complex characters traversing ambition, greed, and betrayal. It’s an exciting shift for Bacigalupi, who may have switched genres, but remains in control of yet another propulsive, explosive thriller.
