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The Giuliana Legacy by Alexis Masters
Combine Anne Rice's suspense with Frances Mayes' imagery and you have Alexis Masters' Giuliana Legacy! This gripping tale focuses on an Italian American girl who is propelled into looking into her family's secret powers-- which she has just begun to experience. You'll travel with her to Greece and Italy to uncover mysteries as deep as the origin of the Etruscans. Meanwhile, the man who killed her father is on her trail and is closing in and wants to get his hands on both her and the origin of her family's secret power. This book contains something for everyone and combines mystery, archeology, spirituality, love and suspense which bring the story to unpredictable twists and turns. I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it-- and you won't either. I'm eagerly waiting for her next work. Follow the link to read an excerpt.
Gabriella's Book of Fire, by Venero Armanno
In this world of sparse prose, where too often we are told that 'less is more',
Venero Armanno has written an incredibly well-plotted, emotional
rollercoaster of a novel, with rich prose and vivid details of the life of Italian immigrants in Brisbane, Australia. His writing indulges
generously the five senses and more. You can smell the cooking coming
straight off the pages, you can breathe the coffee, and feel the wind and the
sun on your face. I had to stop all activities and read it from cover to cover.
Not since Janet Fitch's 'White Oleander' has a novel managed to stir my
emotions and my senses so vividly. This is undoubtedly the best book you
will read this year and will linger in your mind for years to come. (by [email protected])
Umbertina : A Novel
, by Helen Barolini
No novel about Italian immigrants and their children surpasses this work by Helen Barolini, who in addition to being a very fine storyteller, has been at the intellectual forefront of our portion of America. Umbertina is a classic. Every literary American should be aware of this sweeping tale, but every one of us whose family story is reflected by this account of a brave woman's struggle to create her America has a special need to discover Barolini's fictional discovery of her Italian origins.
The chronicle begins with Umbertina's Calabrian youth and follows her and her young husband to New York City, then to Cato (read Syracuse) in upstate New York. What gives the novel its greater dimension of meaning, however, is the juxtaposition of the Americanization that absorbs Umbertina's family through the first part of the story with her granddaughter's quest for the Italian wellsprings of her identity. (by [email protected])
The Tricks of the Trade, Dario Fo
Dario Fo winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in literature,
popular and controversial playwright, actor and
director, has earned international acclaim for his
political satires and farces. Often considered the
rightful heir of Aristophanes, Fo has led the field in
political satire in Europe for over thirty years. The
main targets of his ideologically inspired attacks
have been capitalism, imperialism and corruption in
the Italian government. For performances outside of
Italy, his comedies are frequently adapted to reflect
local political conditions.In this book Dario Fo
articulates the relationship between actor and
audience in a way only someone who has accepted the
physical and mental demands of the acting craft can
do. Fo demonstrates he is one part actor, one part
scholar, and one part inspired artist. Each page
illustrates the line between how an actor acts and
their audience cannot be separated from themselves,
their society, or from the history of the craft. If
nothing else, Fo's joy in performance helps explain
why actors remain central to entertainment and to
society.
Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino
I'm Italian American and to me, this book feels like a little bit of me from the past. I can remember my family telling these stories to each other in Asiago, after eating their meals.
Read this book to yourself, or better, aloud to your favorite adults and children. I really love these stories, and I read them to my cousins when they come over, and they enjoy them too! The tales, some short and some longer, offer magic, fantasy and adventure for the kids and sly insights into human nature for adults. The tales are not "dumbed down" as unfortunately happens in some folktale collections. Calvino preserves the flavor of the spoken word, but these stories work as literature, too. For the scholarly-minded, an appendix in the back gives the provenance of each story. It's a great book for the whole family to enjoy.
The Name of the Rose (translated), by Umberto Eco)
Intricately detailed, imbued with historical beauty, and ancient symbolism, this is a novel to be savored, slowly. Brother William, a learned syllogist, is called upon to solve a murder at a 14th century, mist-enshrouded abbey. This murder is only the first of several bizarre deaths. All clues seem to be connected to the labyrinthine and ancient library, where written secrets have been secured for years. This long tale brings to light the truth that protecting what is good can lead to a kind of obsession that in itself can become evil. This book is obviously the result of painstaking labor and momentous inspiration, the finite and infinite united in art. The characters expound upon subjects of truth, logic, politics and power with timeless insight. The allegories convey ideas on many levels, and it's a book that allows readers to walk away with different levels of insight, depending on the individual reader's personal knowledge. This novel captures the human spirit in all its paradoxical splendor!
A great classic story by a classic author. This book is among Eco's best works and is very hard to put down, even if you have seen the movie already. The story is a murder mystery set in a 14th century monastery. Thanks to Eco's eloquence and profound historical knowledge, you don't just read the story...you re-live the story. You don't just re-live the story, you realize how rich and colorfull Italy's history is, even through the middle ages. (by virtualitalia.com reader [email protected])
Read this book in Italian to get the full effect in the original language.
Rules of the Wild, by Francesca Marciano,
This book grabbed me from the first paragraph...
"In a way everything is always secondhand. You will inherit a car from someone who had decided to leave the country, which you will then sell to one of your friends. You will move into a new house where you have already been...You will make love to someone who has slept with all your friends. There will never be anything brand-new in your life"
It's a novel about an Italian woman who finds herself in East Africa and discovers her inner rawness (while sharing it with the reader). The author captures you and takes you on a safari that is the character's life with observations that will enlighten you about your own.
The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni
My Italian wife "demanded" that I read this book. Then she was amazed that
I found the story so exciting and the history so interesting. Most Italians
are required to read it in school as it is the book which established
"Italian" as the official language of Italy and it is extremely well
written in Italian. This translation makes the story seem like a modern
adventure.
(by [email protected])
Manzoni's The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) is generally considered to be
the greatest Italian novel of all time. I read it aloud to my 9-year-old
daughter and we were both enthralled. It is set in the environs of Milan in
the early 17th century (it was written in the 18th century). The framing
story concerns young lovers whose marriage is thwarted by a local nobleman/
petty tyrant in order to win a bet. Subordinate stories range from
political, economic and biographical analyses of the times to a vivid,
eye-opening description of a plague outbreak and the official denial that
exacerbated it. Penman's English translation is superb.
The Woman of Rome, by Alberto Moravia,
The glitter and cynicism of Rome under Mussolini provide the background of what is probably Alberto Moravia's best and best-known novel - The Woman of Rome. It's the story of Adriana, a simple girl with no fortune but her beauty who models naked for a painter, accepts gifts from men, and could never quite identify the moment when she traded her private dream of home and children for the life of a prostitute. One of the very few novels of the twentieth century which can be ranked with the work of Dostoevsky, The Woman of Rome also tells the stories of the tortured university student Giacomo, a failed revolutionary who refuses to admit his love for Adriana; of the sinister figure of Astarita, the Secret Police officer obsessed with Adriana; and of the coarse and brutal criminal Sonzogno, who treats Adriana as his private property. (from amazon.com)
Alberto Moravia is one of the most important contributors to 20th century Italian literature. During his prolific writing career he explored themes of social alienation, loveless sexuality, and spiritual ennui. To read more work from this author, consider the following titles Gli Indifferenti (in Italian), La Campesina (in Italian), and go to your local used book store to find other out-of-print translated works.
The Art of Love, by Ovid (translated by Rolfe Humphries),
Ovid's Loves, the Art of love, the Art of Beauty, and Remedies for Love are combined in this book and show how Ovid lived and loved. The poetry is surprising at times when I didn't expect someone from around 2 B.C. to write about impotence, sex, and how to get a lover. That is not all that he writes about, though. His poetry of Corrina, a woman he loved, is described with elegance and passion. The Art of Love tells how to court and win a lover and surprisingly many of the ideas can be directly related to modern day life. I found this book to be very interesting in poetic content and also in seeing how alike the world is today with that of the ancient roman empire. (by [email protected])
more books...
Across the River and into the Trees, by Ernest Hemingway
Cantalesia : Poems in Neapolitan Dialect
The Fall of a Sparrow, by Robert Hellenga
Giotto's Hand, by Ian Pears
House of Many Rooms, by Marius Gabriel
The Innamorati, by Midori Snyder
Little Novels of Sicily
Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist
Rules of the Wild, by Francesca Marciano
The Silent Duchess: A Novel, by Dacia Maraini
more...
I'm Not Scared, by Niccolo Ammaniti
