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over her previous book, her debut story collection, The Other
Language. “I love short stories,” she says. “I’m happy to wave
that flag. Writing short stories is incredible gymnastics for the
brain. A short story is a special form—compressed, decisive. I
love the story’s need for detail.”
Nicole Aragi of Aragi Inc., Marciano’s new U.S. agent,
couldn’t agree more. “I’m the queen of collections,” Aragi tells
me. “There was one year when all I had were collections! I find
short stories to be complete experiences. You can pack a lot into
20 pages, and Francesca is a master. She covers wide geographic
and emotional territory”.
Marciano says that with Animal Spirit she’s back to life’s
priorities. “These stories are mature,” she says. “Love is no
longer the fuel that is driving me to write. Alternatives are
what interest me. Girl meets boy doesn’t satisfy me enough. I
want to investigate what brings me to the brink. It’s time to
look up at the sky rather than down at the ground. Looking
wider informed the book, though unconsciously. I saw the
design when the collection was finished. I am in a different
place in my life, more melancholic but also hopeful. The stories
have painful episodes of madness, infidelity, aggression, but I
am an optimist. Change is good, and it’s important to see the
good side of things.”
Marciano relates this idea to the state of her city—“People
criticize Rome: they see the potholes in the street; I see the
beauty, the ruins”—and the state of the world. “Shit happens,”
she says. “It has to happen. The world is threatened by so many
things, but hope is something I’ve been thinking about.”
A true Italian and a true Roman, Marciano is also a nomad.
Besides the decade in Kenya, she lived a decade in New York
City, arriving when she was 21 in the 1970s; she writes in
English and speaks perfectly. After Kenya, she traveled to New
Mexico, and she has spent time in India as well. She recently had
a residency in Chennai, where she finished up this collection.
Desser calls Animal Spirit “fully, richly voiced,” noting that
“Francesca conjures worlds: Rome, a Greek island, the New
Mexican desert.” She recalls learning two years ago that
Marciano was getting images, characters, and ideas down on
the page: “Nothing could have excited me more than to hear
that. From those early sketches came the six stunning stories
in Animal Spirit.”
Aragi, meanwhile, had taken on Marciano as a client in May- Marciano reached out with some stories, but Aragi had
read all of the previous work. They connected via Skype. “I
remember wandering around with my laptop, nattering,” Aragi
says. She had the manuscript for Animal Spirit in September - They met that December in New York.
Desser bought U.S. rights at Pantheon in May 2019.
Publicity and marketing plans include digital advertising,
book club outreach, and a six-city tour covering New York
City; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Santa Fe and Taos,
N.Mex.; and D.C.
The human couplings in Animal Spirit are fraught and con-
suming, but the animals set the stage. They are exotic, and
erotic. Think about dancing with a seven-foot python wrapped
around your body. And don’t forget the skimpy costume. ■
Nicole Aragi Robin DesserFrancesca Marciano© jeannette montgomery barron