The Catacombs

A gripping and genre-defying novel by a rediscovered great of twentieth-century Black American writing, about what it means to be a writer at the dawn of a new era First published in 1965, The Catacombs is a metafictional account set in early 1960s Rome, where the author had returned to study art history after serving on the Italian front during World War II.  African-American expatriate Bill Demby narrates his attempts to write a novel about his friend Doris, who is living in Rome and empl