| Record Number |
887780 |
| ISBN |
9781761067273 (paperback) |
| Author |
Smith, Dominic, 1971- author. |
| Title |
Return to Valetto / Dominic Smith. |
| Publisher/Date |
Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2023. |
| ©2023 |
| Pagination etc. |
358 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Contents note |
"A nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II." --Front cover. |
| Summary Note |
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village-and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II-centuries of earthquakes, landslides and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino - three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother - who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Serafino, a resistance fighter whom her own family harboured, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. Like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret - a betrayal, a disappearance and an unspeakable act of violence - that has impacted Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past? |
| Subject |
Families -- Fiction |
| Family secrets -- Fiction |
| Villages -- Fiction |
| Italy -- Fiction |
| Historical fiction. |
| Shelf Location |
F SMIT |
