A Piazza for Sant’Antonio

Jun 17, 2014 766

Milwaukee author Paul Salsini has published the fifth in his award-winning fictional series set in Tuscany. In the first novel of this series, The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany, terrified villagers were trapped in a farmhouse during WWII. In the second, Sparrow's Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany, a partisan hunted down the collaborator of a horrific massacre. In the third, Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany, a boy came of age during the devastating flood of Florence in 1966. Then the characters entered a new decade in The Temptation of Father Lorenzo: Ten Stories of 1970s Tuscany.


Now the characters, along with a few new friends and relatives, return in A Piazza for Sant'Antonio, Five Novellas of 1980s Tuscany. In the first story, Donna writes a cookbook that makes her famous and threatens her marriage. In another, little Pasquale, in trying save a cat, teaches the people of his village understanding.

When the village of Sant'Antonio is ridiculed because it lacks a piazza, a mysterious man who lives in an abandoned monastery comes to the rescue. Meanwhile, when Dino seeks his roots, he discovers a heroic grandfather, a loving uncle and a doomed village that may be inhabited by ghosts. And in Florence, Father Lorenzo tries to cope with the hysteria brought about by "The Monster of Florence," a serial killer of young lovers.


Salsini was inspired to write the first by experiences of his relatives in Tuscany during the war. After that, one book just seemed to follow the other. He was awarded the 2011 Sons of Italy Grand Lodge of Illinois and Wisconsin's Leonardo da Vinci Award for Literature.


His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, BarnesandNoble.com and other distributors. His website is www.ATuscanSeries.com


Salsini will read and sign "A Piazza for Sant'Antonio" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, at Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee.

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