Never trust the blurb on a book jacket. The one for In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches, published in 2002, reads: “A writer named Nick Tosches (yes, the very same as the author) is hired by a powerful Mafia boss who has come into possession of a manuscript that could be the original Divine Comedy… The other story, constantly intertwining with the first, has as its protagonist Dante Alighieri, who is struggling to move forward with the Commedia.” Let’s follow (ironically) the plot line. We start in New York, where Nick cold-bloodedly kills a young man over an unpaid debt, and immediately afterwards we find ourselves with Dante and his vision of the Heavens. Back to Nick, now in Cuba, tormented by a nasty case of gangrene and memories of the first murder he committed as a child. Then back again to New York, summoned by the Mafia boss. Meanwhile, in Sicily, a priest guards rare manuscripts: from Cielo d’Alcamo’s Rosa fresca aulentissima to the secret confessions of the early popes, up to the coveted manuscript of the Commedia.
Two eras, two worlds, one mystery. In the 14th century, Dante Alighieri seeks refuge in Sicily to finish his Comedy, tormented by elusive inspiration and a consuming fate. Seven centuries later in New York, a writer (Oscar Isaac) is asked to auth...
Dante enters the scene, grappling with the Vita Nova, but Tosches quickly whisks us off to Polynesia – only to abandon it and return to the life of the contemporary writer. From here, we plunge into a twenty-page essay on how the American publishing industry works, interrupted by digressions on gematria and Kabbalah, sprinkled with Plotinus, Eusebius, Aquinas, Pythagoras, and another dozen Greek and medieval thinkers. Nick Tosches is regarded as a major figure in contemporary American literature: author of novels, biographies of famous personalities – including Power on Earth (1986, about Michele Sindona) – and widely followed for his poetry readings. One of his greatest admirers, Johnny Depp, purchased his entire personal library after Tosches’s death in 2019. His writing oscillates between lyrical, elaborate passages and a raw, explicit noir voice. It would take real guts to turn this into a TV series – strictly adults-only, of course!
