Parted Gods

Parted Gods is a novel about the love affair between fraternal twins Antonella and Federico Adamo narrated by her at sunset, after a van runs her over and hurls her high up into the orange sky. Most of it is told as she gains access to her brother's memories in the long instant before she hits the ground again. Antonella is a figurative painter on the rise. Federico is an obscure jazz pianist who, after convincing Antonella to leave her rich German husband and move in with him, is hired to compose the score of a major Japanese anime film. As he comes into his own, Antonella starts doubting her own talent and drinking heavily, like their abusive father did before his pancreas started acting out. The story is set in Berlin with eerie analepses to the twins' childhood in Sicily and the constant refuge provided by their neighbor Tommy Morrell, an old Irish mythologist who, on their thirteenth birthday, recounts the myth of the androgyne to the them: how original humans had two heads, eight limbs, both genders, till Zeus sliced them in half and turned them into the incompetent, incomplete beings we are today. But the twins are lucky: they were born next to their other half. If they stick together, they'll always shine and feel whole. And no one will be able to hurt them. There's also a nice stretch towards the end set in New Orleans.