Return to Valetto
About the Book
Return to Valetto
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 10 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.
Return to Valetto
- Publication Date: June 11, 2024
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Picador
- ISBN-10: 1250335779
- ISBN-13: 9781250335777