The Gentleman From Peru is a novella by Egyptian-born American memoirist, essayist, novelist, and scholar of seventeenth-century literature, André Aciman. A group of eight Americans in their late twenties are stranded in on the Amalfi coast when their hired vessel develops mechanical problems. They’re enjoying free accommodation in a hotel, and their people-watching notes a dapper, bespectacled gentleman in his sixties, armed with notebook and fountain pen, about whose background they make guesses.

When Raúl approaches Mark, it’s to relieve the young man’s distressing shoulder pain. His healing touch amazes, but that is eclipsed by what he seems to know about each of the friends, facts that some don’t even know themselves. He is invited to join them, and happily chats about himself when asked, but his knowledge about each of them leads to a philosophical discussion that includes the concept of past lives, future lives and parallel universes.

“We may no longer be the person we once were, but what if this person did not necessarily die but continued his life in the shadowland of our own, so that you could say that our life is filled with shadow-selves who continue to tug along and to beckon us in all directions even as we live our own lives– all these selves clamouring to have their say, their time, their life, if only we listened and gave in to them!”

One of their number, Margot is a little irritated, and perhaps more sceptical about Raúl’s intentions than the others. Is that why he focusses on her? Is that why he invites her to lunch, and convinces her to accompany him to see certain places off the tourist trail? What might his agenda be?

In less that two hundred pages, Aciman gives the reader characters with depth and appeal, evokes his setting with gorgeous descriptive prose, and crafts a plot that is intriguing, moving and thought-provoking. An entrancing read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber.