From the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos,
Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto tells of a nearly 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 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
harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. But 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?
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 kinds--even time.
