Land of the Disappeared: A review of The Therapist by Nial Giacomelli

The Therapist by Nial Giacomelli

A book review

Despite its virulence, little is known about the disease.  They say that it attacks the brain and spinal column. That victims suffer encephalitis-like reactions. Lethargy, confusion and changes in personality are all common.  The media report cases of grandiose delusions and memory loss.  Some hear voices, other see impossible realities.  All eventually disappear.

A previously unknown, fatal disease grips Oregon and then, eventually, spreads across the States.  As panic mounts, the narrator and his wife Simone try to come to terms with their feelings of grief and guilt following the death of their young son in an accident.  But will it be possible for them to save themselves and their marriage, while the world seems to be falling apart?

Nial Giacomelli’s engrossing and psychologically complex , published as part of the latest batch of Fairlight Moderns, borrows strongly from genre fiction.  This is evident in its post-apocalyptic, dystopian premise, spiced with an element of body horror and an unreliable narrator worthy of the best Gothic fiction.  One could also read the novella as a ghost story – possibly not in the traditional sense of the word, but certainly insofar as it explores the idea of how the dead remain with us, “haunting” our existence.  Indeed, it soon becomes evident that the deadly epidemic, culminating in the dramatic ‘disappearance’ of its victims, is a novella-length allegory or extended “pathetic fallacy”:  the large-scale manifestation or metaphor for the private grief of the protagonists.

As the novel progresses, the narrator’s dreams take centre-stage, and the mysterious figure of the (unnamed) therapist assumes an increasingly important role.  Her questions tease out layer upon layer of meaning, leading to unexpected plot twists and turns and an ending which sent me back to the first pages of the book.

This is another strong addition to the second set of Fairlight Moderns, of which I have already reviewed Minutes from the Miracle City by Omar Sabbagh and AtlanticWinds by William Prendiville.