The Author

Steven Curley, M.D.

A physician who has spent three decades working alongside colleagues in Naples, and who knows its hospitals, chapels and pizzerias from the inside.

Physician · Author
Portrait of author Steven Curley

Steven Curley, M.D.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

About the Author

Written by a doctor who knows the operating room

Steven Curley, M.D. lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, two dogs, a cat, and a flock of chickens.

For three decades he has worked alongside colleagues at the G. Pascale National Cancer Institute and the Federico II University Hospital in Naples. Over many visits he studied the Sansevero Chapel, the Abbey of Loreto and the Neapolitan underground, and that knowledge fills every page: the operating rooms, the history, and the cappuccinos he calls unrivalled in the world.

The Italian Test is dedicated to two surgeons and teachers, Dr. Mark Talamonti and Dr. Francesco Izzo.

"Come early, stay late, work hard, say please and thank you, take great care of people, teach the next generation."

From the dedication
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Specimen · Naples, Italy

Written under the microscope

  1. 30years of collaboration with surgeons and researchers in Naples
  2. 2institutions: the G. Pascale National Cancer Institute and the Federico II University Hospital
  3. 100%of the novel's hospitals, chapels, streets and restaurants are real places the author knows

From the Author's Notes

Naples, as he knows it

Places from the novel the author says are worth the trip.

History

Cappella Sansevero

The Veiled Christ, the Veiled Truth and, in the basement, the Anatomical Machines. "Horrifying and mesmerizing."

Faith

The Duomo of San Gennaro

Home to the patron saint's vials of blood, watched three times a year to see whether they turn liquid.

Underground

Napoli Sotterranea

More than 2,000 years of tunnels under the city. Skip it if you are claustrophobic: some passages are a sideways squeeze.

Art

Santa Chiara Cloister

Majolica tiles and folk scenes in a garden that is at its best in spring and summer.

December

Spaccanapoli at Christmas

Via San Gregorio Armeno, "Christmas Street", is packed with stalls selling figures for the Neapolitan presepe.

Food

Gay Odin

A chocolate shop the author insists you must not skip. Try the "foresta", now also in gelato.

Food

A real Neapolitan pizza

Tomato, fresh mozzarella di bufala and prosciutto crudo is his order. "I've never had a bad meal in Naples."

Day trip

Montevergine & the Abbey of Loreto

Take the funicular up to the sanctuary, then visit the abbey that once ran a pharmacy of majolica jars.

Allen & Leslie Nelson

Every case is a test

Coming soon

The Five-Year Test

The backstory of Allen and Leslie Nelson: general surgery residency in 1980s America, with all its rigor, drudgery, joy and terrifying moments.

The Italian Test
Available now

The Italian Test

Naples, 1995. A poisoned dinner, a centuries-old secret, and an American vascular surgeon who can't stop asking questions.

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The Santa Fe Test

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The Five Year Test

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