Return to Valetto

April 24, 2023
Smith (The Electric Hotel) unspools an intriguing saga of wartime promises and trauma. In 2011, widower Hugh Fisher leaves his home in Michigan for a sabbatical in Valetto, the Umbrian village of his deceased Anglo Italian mother, Hazel. There, he discovers a chef named Elisa Tomassi occupying his mother’s cottage, which he inherited. Elisa claims Hugh’s resistance fighter grandfather gave it to her family while on his deathbed during WWII. Hugh’s three widowed aunts, who never knew what happened to their father, call in lawyers to dispute Elisa’s story. Hugh’s 99-year-old grandmother, meanwhile, insists Hugh travel to the village where her husband was buried to get to the bottom of things. There, he meets Alessia, Elisa’s mother, who spent part of the war as a child refugee in the Serafino villa. Alessia shares the decades-long correspondence she had with Hazel and reveals she and Hazel were tortured by Valetto’s sole fascist party member, Silvio Ruffo. Hugh, shaken by what he’s uncovered, returns to the villa and schemes with his aunts to confront Silvio, who is still alive at 96. The characters are vividly drawn, and the plot’s low-grade tension grows taut as Hugh works himself up to the final showdown. This intelligent family drama will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary.

January 24, 2023
This is the sixth novel from Australian-American author Dominic Smith, perhaps best known locally for his 2017 ABIA-winning novel The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. The fictional Valetto, in Umbria, is an almost-deserted hilltop town. It’s home to a decaying villa inhabited by a tribe of English-Italian widows, and mysteries from the past that keep bubbling their way to the surface. Our trustworthy and sympathetic narrator is Hugh Fisher, a widowed historian and father who specialises in abandoned places. As nephew and grandson of the women in the villa, he spent long childhood summers in Valetto on holiday from Michigan. When he returns to the Italian town for an extended visit for academic purposes and his grandmother’s 100th birthday, he faces the intrusion of an audacious visitor who unexpectedly claims ownership of the villa’s cottage, which was left to Hugh by his late mother. This leads to the unearthing of several overlooked chapters of family history relating to the war and the mysterious disappearance of his grandfather. Peppered with food references, grieving hearts and poetically Italian phrases, Smith’s novel is an authentic yarn, with conflict, tension and an enchanting crew of eccentric characters. It ponders how it is that we sometimes don’t really know the people we love, and why painful memories are sometimes kept hidden. Reminiscent of other Italy-set wartime or small-town stories such as The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida or The Fireflies of Autumn by Moreno Giovannoni, Return to Valetto is full of rich imagery and captivating storytelling. It is highly recommended for Italophiles and anyone looking to be swept up in character-driven drama. Read Shiells's interview with Dominic Smith about Return to Valetto here.