Publishers Weekly
04/24/2023
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. (June)
From the Publisher
Winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award for Fiction
“[A] haunting novel . . . Themes of loss and the burden of history are seasoned with grace and humor.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
“Veteran novelist Smith deftly weaves multiple themes of abandonment and loss throughout a compelling narrative studded with gorgeous descriptions of the Italian landscape and sharp character sketches . . . More fine work from a gifted storyteller: engrossing, well written, and affecting.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[Smith] is a master of his trade who has executed a flawless novel that satisfies on all counts. . . . A richly rewarding book that is imbued with a sense of timelessness. It’s an outright pleasure to read.”
—Stephenie Harrison, BookPage (starred review)
“[Smith] brings Valetto to life with a gift for symmetry and a dash of humor . . . This accomplished novel offers engaging characterization paired with echoes of the past that resound in the present.”
—Bethany Latham, Booklist
“An intriguing saga of wartime promises and trauma . . . This intelligent family drama will keep readers turning the pages.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] story about grief and renewal . . . with real revelations.”
—Peter Kenneally, The Sydney Morning Herald
“An engaging story about family loyalties, and about the lasting power of long-buried secrets from World War II.”
—Ann Skea, The Newtown Review of Books
“I was completely charmed and transported by Return to Valetto, Dominic Smith’s smart, engaging novel about the secrets held within a dying Italian village. This terrific book, about loss and family and the weight of history, is probably as close as I’ll ever get to buying one of those picturesque Italian villas, and surely a wiser investment.”
—Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and The Angel of Rome
“Packed with lush details and a gripping narrative, Dominic Smith’s masterful novel is about the ways in which the past echoes through generations, how the human heart is both fragile and resilient, and what it takes to stand up for justice no matter how much time has passed. Return to Valetto is a story of love, loss, and the enduring power of hope. Propulsive, heartfelt, and sneakily funny—I was transfixed from page one.”
—Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept
“The revelations of this stately and majestic novel—those of history, and those of the heart—unfold with meticulous grace. With fascists breathing down our necks anew, Return to Valetto could not be more timely, but it is the fine writing and high drama that make it so memorable, and so moving.”
—Joshua Ferris, author of A Calling for Charlie Barnes
“In this propulsive, lush, and haunting novel, Dominic Smith transports us to a near-abandoned town in Umbria and shows how the courage to voice unspeakable secrets of the past can give new life to crumbling bonds of family and community. Filled with enormous hope for the future and rich appreciation for history, Return to Valetto will make you want to race through to the end but also slow down to savor the beautiful writing and sharp insights. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
Kirkus Reviews
2023-03-14
A grieving widower uncovers some long-buried family secrets in his mother’s native village in Italy.
Six years after historian Hugh Fisher’s wife died from cancer, her shoes are still in his closet, and his daughter, Susan, asks him bluntly if he ever plans to be happy again. After his well-regarded book about vanishing Italian towns garners Hugh several invitations to speak at Italian universities, Susan deplores his decision to spend six months there as yet another example of his wallowing in the past. But his plan to base himself in Valetto, the tiny village where his aging aunts still live, is upended when he learns that the cottage he inherited from his mother—her death is another recent trauma—is being occupied by someone his outraged Aunt Iris calls “a squatter.” Milanese chef Elisa Tomassi claims that her family was promised the cottage as recompense for assisting Hugh’s grandfather, who left his wife and daughters to join the anti-Fascist resistance during World War II and never returned. Veteran novelist Smith deftly weaves multiple themes of abandonment and loss throughout a compelling narrative studded with gorgeous descriptions of the Italian landscape and sharp character sketches; each of Hugh’s three aunts comes to life with ornery individualism, as do their indefatigably cheerful caretaker, Milo; his long-suffering wife, Donata; and other secondary characters. Hugh and Elisa are drawn to each other even as their separate agendas and individual psychic wounds threaten to keep them apart. A late-novel revelation about long-ago wrongdoing brings an overdue reckoning for a local fascist and enables Hugh to make peace with the mother he never felt he really knew. Nonetheless, Hugh acknowledges, “History does not offer us closure. It offers us the inscrutability of the present.” As this absorbing novel closes, Smith’s engaging protagonist seems ready to embrace this inscrutability and move on with his life.
More fine work from a gifted storyteller: engrossing, well written, and affecting.
