“The first novel by the author of Conquest was written five years ago on a fellowship at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome, Italy. Giulio, ‘who loved to sleep during the day,’ is the kind of anti-hero already present in various guises in the stories of Conquest. ‘Fool or angel?’ One often wonders, or even: ‘Plant or animal? Perhaps they think. Secretly.’ It's a species of papilionaceae wanted in a crossword puzzle that Giulio wonders about, but it might as well be applied to himself and his Roman friends. It's what makes this novel, told with a somnambulant and almost painful lightness, both exciting and disturbing.” (Bruno Steiger, NZZ)