"Edoardo Ballerini's adroit narration conveys the subtle changes in the family, set against the splendor of Valetto's changing landscape."- Bookpage
From the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto tells of anearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II.
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving villageand a hub of resistance and refuge during World War IIcenturies of earthquakes, landslides, and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafinothree eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian motherwho 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 harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. But like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secreta betrayal, a disappearance, and an unspeakable act of violencethat has impacted Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?
Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto is a riveting journey into one family's dark history, a page-turning excavation of the ruins of history and our commitment to justice in a fragile world. For fans of Amor Towles, Anthony Doerr, and Jess Walter, it is a deeply human and transporting testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kindseven time.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.