I write novels, and, occasionally, short stories. My debut novel, That Summer in Puglia, is out with Eyewear Publishing and is currently in its third print run. It was the Italian Day fiction entry at the FTWeekend Oxford Literary Festival 2018. I’m currently finishing my second book, Behind the Veil, a tale inspired by real-life events in sixteenth-century Italy.
Both novels are set in Puglia, where traces of disparate eras still surface and surprise, affecting the present: their legacy includes the coexistence of different perspectives which time has softened and blended, with fascinating outcomes. Puglia thus offers an ideal backdrop for characters facing the universal task of responding to the inevitable contradictions of existence – the task E.M. Forster so aptly described as ‘connecting the fragments’.
Photo credits:
That Summer In Puglia cover photo: © Salvo d’Avila; all rights reserved; reproduced with kind permission of the artist. Book cover graphic design: Edwin Smet.
Vase of Talos by Forzaruvo94. Reproduced under a CC license.
Castel del Monte by Marcok di it.wikipedia.org. Reproduced under a CC license.
Trulli of Alberobello by Marcok di it.wikipedia.org. Reproduced under a CC license.
Detail of Basilica of Santa Croce by Matthias Kuebel. Reproduced under a CC license.
Valeria Vescina 