The Steps
Juliano Zaffino€16.00
The first time Derek was ever afraid of the children
was two or three weeks in, when Angelo
screamed at them for ruining his life and headbutted
the plate in front of him until it was shrapnel
Derek’s childhood sweetheart Sophie and her children, reeling from tragedy, move from Canada to his home in England. There they attempt to forge a life together – but their new family is shadowed by grief, myth, and a lingering sense of the uncanny. Through shifting perspectives, from Jules, the delicate middle child, to fierce Ema, debut novelist Juliano Zaffino paints an unforgettable portrait of love, loyalty, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
Blending psychological suspense with intimate family drama, and with echoes of Virginia Woolf and Shirley Jackson, The Steps is both deeply moving and eerily unsettling, a meditation on trauma, family bonds, and the thin line between tenderness and violence.
PRAISE FOR JULIANO ZAFFINO
‘This family saga is as creepy as anything Shirley Jackson or even an early Stephen King might have put together, and the writing is beautifully crafted. Zaffino has already garnered notice with his short fiction and this first novel, unusually structured but thoroughly engrossing, is excellent.’ – Anne Cunningham, Offaly Independent
‘Intimate and eerie, The Steps offers us glimpses of grief, desire and family dynamics that intensify word by word into a finely balanced tale’ – Anthony Shapland
‘In his debut, Juliano Zaffino shows himself to be a writer of tremendous authority and delicate touch’ – Lauren Groff
‘A tantalising study of sibling dynamics, the complicated repercussions of childhood, and the salvation of art’ – Sara Baume
‘Quick and vivid and clever’ – Doireann Ní Ghríofa
‘Rare and beautiful and ultimately very human’ – Rebecca Lucy Taylor
‘A liturgy of the body, of desire, and the hazards and recompenses of love’ – Seán Hewitt
