The nameless narrator of Beyer's (The Karnau Tapes
) new novel has a fondness for peepholes: he relishes obscured glimpses and colors he's unable to see with his imagination ("What I can't see I must invent"). As a child, the narrator and his three cousins follow a similar path in their search for the truth about their estranged grandfather and dead grandmother, the origin of the dark "Italian" eyes shared by all four children. What begins as an innocent game of make-believe—four children poring over mysteriously sparse family albums and wandering about town in search of evidence—becomes a full-fledged obsession for each, and the stake that drives them apart as adults. Was their grandmother truly a famous opera singer? Did their grandfather really participate in a secret German air force operation during the Spanish Civil War? Why does his second wife forbid him from seeing his family, and is she really the fearsome, ax-wielding "Old Lady" of legend? It becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction in Beyer's twisting, elusive tale as multiple versions of the same story collide in the narrator's imagination. For anyone who doesn't demand a firm resolution, this love story wrapped in a drama wrapped in a mystery is a lovely, gratifying read. (July)
