"Tartufo"

Kira Jane Buxton's writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. Her debut novel Hollow Kingdom was an Indie Next pick, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Audie Awards, and the Washington State Book Awards, and was named a best book of 2019 by Good Housekeeping, NPR, and Book Riot.

Buxton applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Tartufo, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Tartufo, truffle hunter Giovanni is in the midst of a bad memory of his father, who was cruel and intolerant of Giovanni’s partner Paolo. Giovanni is roused from remembering by his truffle dogs, Aria and Fagiolo, who are with him truffle hunting in the Tuscan woods. In particular, the page has a focus on his younger dog, Fagiolo, who is gallivanting through the trees happily, whilst utterly failing at finding truffles.

The Page 69 Test really holds true here as we get a sense of Giovanni’s sweet, sensitive nature, and his beautiful relationship with Paolo. We are witness to the grief that is plaguing him as he walks in the woods to hunt truffles—the only place of peace for him. The setting starts in Giovanni’s mind as he is pulled away by the past, but his beloved dogs bring him back to the present where he is doing what he loves—truffle hunting.

We also get a quick hit of humor in seeing the apprentice pup fail spectacularly at truffle hunting, but enjoying every millisecond of his interpretation of it! (“I found a rock! And now a stick!”) Since the novel is about scent, memory, the necessity of community and the magic of nature, I’d say this page exemplifies the novel as a whole.

I’m fascinated by the fact that page 69 introduces us to a protagonist’s plight (grief and the unresolved relationship with his father) but also a portrait of the woodland and a truffle hunt (integral to a novel about a down-on-its luck Italian village and the finding of the world’s biggest truffle which will either be its blessing or its curse!) Page 69 picks up on the poignancy of Giovanni’s predicament, as well as the fun of Tartufo as a loving, funny, charming story about what happens when a humungous fungus is unearthed in the tiny Tuscan village of Lazzarini Boscarino.

Visit Kira Jane Buxton's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kira Jane Buxton & Ewok.

My Book, The Movie: Hollow Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Hollow Kingdom.

My Book, The Movie: Feral Creatures.

Q&A with Kira Jane Buxton.

The Page 69 Test: Feral Creatures.

My Book, The Movie: Tartufo.

--Marshal Zeringue