25 Feb Book Review: In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches

There are books that you read for escapism, books that keep you entertained, and then there are books that feel like they’ve been written just to challenge you—intellectually, emotionally, maybe even existentially. In the Hand of Dante is definitely one of those books. It’s not a straightforward thriller, nor is it purely historical fiction, and yet it blends elements of both with a heavy dose of literary meta-fiction, philosophy, and the kind of writing that is equal parts indulgent and mesmerizing.

It’s one of those books that made me pause every few chapters and ask myself, “Wait… what exactly am I reading?”—and I mean that in the best way possible

What’s it about?

The novel runs two parallel narratives, each deeply intertwined with Dante Alighieri and his masterwork, The Divine Comedy.

The First Storyline – Dante in the 14th Century

The first narrative is set in the late Middle Ages, following Dante Alighieri himself as he struggles to complete The Divine Comedy. Tosches reimagines Dante as more than just a poet—he is a man haunted by his own mortality, burdened by political exile, and driven by an insatiable hunger for knowledge, even if it means delving into the forbidden, the mystical, and the divine.

Dante’s sections are richly atmospheric, plunging the reader into a time of religious turmoil, forbidden texts, and secret societies. Tosches weaves historical fact with conjecture, making it feel like we’re witnessing a hidden history, one that never quite made it into our textbooks. We see Dante not as the revered literary genius we study in school, but as a man desperately trying to create something that will outlive him, all while navigating a world that does not fully understand or appreciate his ambition.

The Second Storyline – A Contemporary, Metafictional Crime Story

Fast-forward to the early 2000s, and we get a completely different story. The protagonist of this storyline is Nick Tosches himself—or rather, a version of him. This fictional Tosches is a jaded, aging writer, questioning his career, his place in the world, and, really, the point of everything.

Then he gets a call.

A rare, handwritten manuscript—the original, untouched Divine Comedy, supposedly penned by Dante himself—has surfaced. And it’s not just any rare find; it has been stolen from the Vatican’s secret archives and has somehow landed in the hands of a New York mob boss.

Tosches, drawn by equal parts curiosity, greed, and a vague sense of destiny, is pulled into a dangerous underworld where rare books are as valuable as diamonds—and just as deadly to possess. What starts as a literary quest quickly spirals into something much darker, involving crime syndicates, deception, betrayal, and deep existential musings on art, mortality, and human nature.

The lines between reality and fiction blur as Tosches the character starts questioning his own role in the grander narrative of life—and, in doing so, forces the reader to do the same.

What This Chick Thinks

In the Hand of Dante is a lot. It’s dense, it’s philosophical, it’s gritty, and it does not hold your hand at any point. It’s a novel that demands patience and rewards those who are willing to get lost in its labyrinthine structure.

The Dante sections? Stunning. Tosches manages to make the medieval world feel visceral—grimy, violent, and bursting with intellectual and theological conflict. It’s not the dry, academic version of Dante’s life you might expect; it’s messy and full of power struggles, secret knowledge, and a poet who seems like he might just sell his soul to finish his masterpiece.

The modern-day storyline, on the other hand, is where the book gets… weird. And not always in a way that works. Tosches inserting himself as a character (an aging, cynical writer dragged into a literary heist) is either brilliantly audacious or self-indulgent, depending on how you look at it. At times, I loved his musings on writing, death, and the commercialization of literature. Other times, it felt like I was trapped in a long-winded philosophical monologue that had little to do with the plot.

The crime elements are gripping at first—there’s a real sense of danger surrounding this mysterious manuscript—but as the novel progresses, the tension fizzles out. The book gets so wrapped up in existential and literary musings that it sometimes forgets it was supposed to be telling a story.

I will say, though, Tosches’ prose is electric. His sentences are raw, poetic, and razor-sharp, swinging between the kind of high-minded intellectualism you’d expect from an academic and the gritty realism of a crime novel. You never quite know what kind of sentence you’re going to get next, and that unpredictability is both exhilarating and exhausting.

Final Thoughts

This is not a book I’d recommend to just anyone. If you go in expecting a fast-paced thriller about a stolen manuscript, you’re going to be disappointed. If you go in expecting a historical novel about Dante, you’ll get that… but only in pieces.

In the Hand of Dante is really a meditation on art, death, obsession, and what it means to create something that outlives you. It’s for readers who love books that defy easy categorization and are okay with getting lost in philosophical rabbit holes. Some parts are pure brilliance, while others feel self-indulgent and meandering, but one thing is for sure—it’s not a book you’ll forget anytime soon.

Rating: 6/10

Try It If You Like…

• Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco: A dense, intellectual thriller filled with historical conspiracies and philosophical musings.
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: A metafictional masterpiece that blurs the lines between fiction and reality in a mind-bending way.
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: A medieval mystery wrapped in layers of historical and theological discourse.