So Shall You Reap

Also by Donna LeonDeath at La FeniceDeath in a Strange CountryDressed for DeathDeath and JudgmentAcqua AltaQuietly in Their SleepA Noble RadianceFatal RemediesFriends in High PlacesA Sea of TroublesWillful BehaviorUniform JusticeDoctored EvidenceBlood from a StoneThrough a Glass, DarklySuffer the Little ChildrenThe Girl of His DreamsAbout FaceA Question of BeliefDrawing ConclusionsHandel’s BestiaryBeastly ThingsVenetian CuriositiesThe Jewels of ParadiseThe Golden EggMy Venice and Other EssaysBy its CoverGondolaFalling in LoveThe Waters of Eternal YouthEarthly RemainsThe Temptation of ForgivenessUnto Us a Son Is GivenTrace ElementsTransient DesiresGive unto Others Donna LeonSo Shall You ReapAtlantic Monthly PressNew York Copyright © 2023 by Donna Leon and Diogenes VerlagEndpaper map © Martin Lubikowski, ML Design, LondonJacket photograph © Vyacheslav Lopatin/AlamyAll rights reserved. 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Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [email protected] published in Great Britain in 2023 by Hutchinson Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House.Published simultaneously in CanadaFirst Grove Atlantic edition: March 2023Typeset in 12/16.45 pt Palatino LT Std by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, PondicherryLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.ISBN 978-0-8021-6236-6eISBN 978-0-8021-6237-3Atlantic Monthly Pressan imprint of Grove Atlantic154 West 14th StreetNew York, NY 10011Distributed by Publishers Group Westgroveatlantic.com For Cecily and Johannes Trapp Oh, fatal consequenceOf rage, by reason uncontroll’d!With every law he can dispense;No ties the furious monster hold:From crime to crime he blindly goes,Nor end, but with his own destruction knows.Saul Act II, 68Handel Contents Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32 1On a Saturday in early November, Guido Brunetti, reluctant to go outside, was at home, trying to decide which of his books to remove from the shelves in Paola’s study. Years ago, some months before the birth of their daughter, he had renounced claim to what had been his study so that their second child could have her own bedroom. Paola had offered his books sanctuary on four shelves. At the time, Brunetti had suspected this would not suffice, and eventually it had not: the time had come for The Cull. He was faced with the decision of what to eliminate from the shelves. The first shelf held books he knew he would read again; the second, at eye level, held books he wanted to read for the first time; the third, books he’d not finished but believed he would; and the bottom shelf held books he had known, sometimes even as he was buying them, that he would never read.He decided to begin with the books at the bottom. He knelt on one knee and studied the spines. Halfway along, he saw the familiar face of Proust, and the face of Proust, and the face of Proust. Slipping his hands into the space before the first book and after the last, he said aloud, ‘Now,’ and extracted them in one block. He stood and carried them over to Paola’s desk, tilted his hands, and set them down in a wobbly pile, then patted them into order. He stepped back and counted the faces of Proust: seven.He went to the kitchen and returned with one of the paper bags the city distributed to hold paper for collection. He opened it and lowered the Prousts carefully inside, then returned to the shelf, carrying the bag. He set it beside him, knelt again, and glanced more carefully at the remaining books, making a series of visceral judgements, adding the books to the bag without bothering to give them the opportunity to plead for their lives from the temporary safety of Paola’s desk. Moby Dick; The Man of Feeling; I Promessi Sposi, which he’d been forced to read as a student in liceo and had hated. It had survived this long because, until now, he’d lacked the courage to believe a ‘classic’ could be such a bore, but into the bag it went. He came to four volumes of D’Annunzio’s plays and poetry and knew instantly that they were for the bag: was it because he was a bad writer or a bad person? To settle it, he opened one of the books of poetry at random and read the first line of the first poem his eye fell upon. ‘Voglio un amore doloroso, lento …’Brunetti’s hand, still holding the book, fell to his side. ‘You want a love that’s painful and slow, do you?’ he asked the deceased poet. ‘How about fast and painless?’ He bent and picked up the sixteen centimetres of D’Annunzio and tucked them in beside Manzoni. ‘If ever a marriage was made in heaven,’ he said, looking down into the bag, content with his decision. The used book-store at Campo Santa Maria Nova would gladly have them all.Brunetti studied the empty spaces on the shelf, wondering how he could fill them. Before an answer came, his phone rang.He started to give his name, but a voice he recognized as Vianello’s spoke over his, asking, ‘Guido, can you meet me at Piazzale Roma?’‘It’s Saturday, Lorenzo,’ he told his friend and colleague. ‘And it’s raining and it’s cold.’‘And it’s important,’ Vianello added.‘Tell me.’Pausing only long enough to give a heavy sigh, Vianello said, ‘I had a call from Fazio.’ It took Brunetti a moment to recognize the name, a sergeant on the Treviso force and someone with whom