The Catacombs

A Novel

By: William Demby, Jeff Biggers - introduction

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

An expat in Rome makes his way as a writer in this gripping and genre-defying novel, first published in 1965 by a rediscovered great of Black American literature.

In this masterpiece of metafiction set in the Rome of the tumultuous 1960s, Black American expatriate Bill Demby narrates his attempts to write a novel about his friend Doris, another Black American working as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s handmaidens in the filming of Cleopatra. Utterly dependent upon Doris for the development of his novel, Demby is both a participant in and observer of her life as she begins an affair with an Italian count. Demby’s growing emotional and artistic involvement in the tumultuous affair of his character-friend leads him on an existential quest for the meaning of truth and fiction, both lived and created, in a world torn by the social upheaval of the early sixties.

Cover: The Intimacy of Water (detail), 1973 by Romare Bearden, © 2026 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Critic reviews

“One of the great novelists of the last 100 years.”—Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo

“[Demby is] a true artist.” —Arna Bontemps, author of Black Thunder