Summary
Don Giovanni was once the wealthiest and handsomest young man in Messina. Then a tidal wave changed everything. When a well-dressed stranger offers him a magical purse, he knows he shouldn't take it. Only the devil would offer a deal like this, and only a fool would accept.
Don Giovanni is no fool, but he is desperate. He takes the bet: he will not bathe for 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days. Beauty is a small price to pay for worldly wealth, isn't it? Unless he loses the wager--and with it his soul.
Set against the stunning backdrop of ancient Sicily, Donna Jo Napoli's new novel is a powerful tale about discovering what truly matters most.
Author Notes
Donna Jo Napoli was born on February 28, 1948. She received a B.A. in mathematics, an M.A. in Italian literature, and a Ph.D. in general and romance linguistics from Harvard University. She has taught on the university level since 1970, is widely published in scholarly journals, and has received numerous grants and fellowships in the area of linguistics.
In the area of linguistics, she has authored five books, co-authored six books, edited one book, and co-edited five books. She is also a published poet and co-editor of four volumes of poetry. Her first middle grade novel, Soccer Shock, was published in 1991. Her other novels include the Zel, Beast, The Wager, Lights on the Nile, Skin, Storm, Hidden, and Dark Shimmer. She is also the author of several picture books including Flamingo Dream, The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions, Corkscrew Counts: A Story About Multiplication, The Crossing, A Single Pearl, and Hands and Hearts. She has received several awards including the New Jersey Reading Association's M. Jerry Weiss Book Award for The Prince of the Pond and the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water.
(Bowker Author Biography)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Set in 1169, The Wager is a retelling of a traditional Sicilian fairy tale. As the story opens, Don Giovanni is a well-to-do spendthrift who gives little thought to anything but his own pleasure. An earthquake and subsequent tidal wave change his circumstances dramatically, and he is soon wandering the land as a vagrant. In classic Faustian style, the devil appears on the scene to offer a wager: he will provide Don Giovanni endless wealth in exchange for relinquishing his beauty-he may not change his clothes, shave, comb his hair, or wash for three years, three months, and three days. The devil provides the don with a magic purse, and the game is on. Suffice to say, the rot that grows on this hero is truly foul. Readers will be engrossed by descriptions of his decay, including vermin, worms, and open sores. Obviously Don Giovanni undergoes a dramatic change in how he treats the lowliest members of society. Evocative of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, this marvelous story is well told, and the rich, sophisticated language will grip skilled readers.-Leah Krippner, Harlem High School, Machesney Park, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Based on the Italian fairy tale "Don Giovanni de la Fortuna," Napoli's (Alligator Bayou) sumptuously written novel is set in 12th-century Sicily. Part historical fiction, part spiritual fantasy, the story begins when Don Giovanni, a well-to-do 19-year-old orphan who is being groomed for leadership, suddenly loses his castle and wealth to a tidal wave. The eponymous wager is, of course, a deal with the devil (who appears in the form of a well-dressed stranger). Don Giovanni agrees not to bathe for three years, three months, and three days in exchange for endless bags of coins. Readers follow Don Giovanni's journey of the flesh and spirit as he suffers humiliation and physical decay; descriptions of lush feasts and brightly colored brocades give way to wretched scenes described in lurid detail: "He'd worn through his shoes a couple of months ago... a cut... oozed pus. Each night he'd press out the guck, but by morning it would be swollen again." As Don Giovanni reaches toward generosity and grace, he is ultimately rewarded. Napoli never underestimates her audience, depicting human nature at its worst and its best. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
There's something rotten at the center of this novel-length fairy-tale retelling, and that's what makes it so delightful. The wager of the title is a pact with the devil, akin to the one in the Grimms' "Bearskin," which requires a man to endure filth for wealth. Three years, three months, three days: that's how long Don Giovanni, already a renowned playboy at age nineteen but reduced to beggar status after partying away his fortune, agrees to forgo bathing. Napoli fleshes out an old Sicilian tale, "Don Giovanni de la Fortuna," with a distinctive twelfth-century setting, ravaged by a tidal wave and earthquake resulting from Mount Etna's eruption. Against the backdrop of a countryside devastated by natural disasters, Don Giovanni's personal disasters grow increasingly, intriguingly complex. How can he manage the loneliness, ostracism, self-disgust, and physical discomfort-bugs, boils, sores, other nastiness-of his condition? Can such a loathsome creature also be a respected benefactor? The answers to these questions coalesce into a first-rate survival story, one in which a few loyal souls actually come to appreciate Don Giovanni for who he is. And they don't even hold their noses. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
A fallen nobleman beats the devil in Napoli's latest fairy tale-inspired novel. Based on a Sicilian story and similar to the better-known Grimm Brothers tale The Bearskin, Napoli's novel begins in twelfth-century Sicily, when handsome, young Don Giovanni loses his wealth in the aftermath of a tsunami. Reduced to begging, he travels the countryside until a stranger offers him a magical, bottomless purse of gold coins if he agrees not to bathe, groom himself, or change his clothes for three years. Realizing that he is wagering his soul with the devil, Don Giovanni nonetheless accepts and begins his long trial. Napoli's vivid descriptions contrast the Edenic landscapes with Don Giovanni's increasingly festering body, from his abscess-covered backside to his lice-infested scalp. The colorful detail, while sometimes stomach-churning, underscores the story's fascinating themes about the importance of appearance, what it means to be civilized, and the line between human and beast. A surprise twist leads to a satisfying love story and closes the novel with more joy, and fewer devilish triumphs, than the original tale.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Napoli expertly sets the scene for this retelling of a traditional Sicilian tale (which also recalls the Grimm Brothers story, "The Bearskin"). Don Giovanni, once the richest man in Messina and "irresistible to women," loses everything to a tidal wave and the crushing load of his own debts. Now a beggar, he is tempted into a pact with the devil to surrender his looks for three years in exchange for wealth restored: "You cannot wash yourself, change your clothes, shave your beard, comb your hair. Easy." The lifelike, tactile details of the story make it all eerily real.
