PROLIFIC ITALIAN AMERICAN AUTHOR Paul Salsini has published another tribute to Tuscany, the unforgettable land of his roots.
Ranging over time and place, this new collection of stories by the award-winning author reflects people and events in Florence and in tiny villages and towns all over this magnificent region.
Many are based on actual happenings and some are historical. For example, a soldier writes to his girlfriend and his mother during World War I. A massacre takes the lives of four innocent men in a village during World War II. An elderly woman recalls her life as a staffetta, that is a courier, helping partisans during that war.
Some are in the not-so-distant past. Thousands of desperate Albanians commandeer a ship in an ill-fated attempt to seek refuge in Italy. Frances Mayes’ best-selling “Under the Tuscan Sun” reverberates in Cortona, where it takes place.
Some could be ripped from today’s headlines. The coronavirus pandemic causes panic for a young family from America. A tour guide loses his job because of it. Women march for their rights.
And there’s at least one just for fun. Shakespeare could not have imagined what happens to two star-crossed lovers.
This is Salsini’s tenth book, and all are set in Tuscany, where his father and his mother’s parents were all born in a tiny village northwest of Lucca. The first, “The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany,” was inspired by the experiences of his cousin during World War II. This was followed by a sequel, “Sparrow’s Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany,” and this soon became a six-volume series with “Dino’s Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany,” “The Temptation of Father Lorenzo: Ten Stories of 1970s Tuscany,” “A Piazza for Sant’Antonio: Five Novellas of 1980s Tuscany,” and “The Fearless Flag Thrower of Lucca: Nine Stories of 1990s Tuscany.”
Although that concluded “A Tuscan Series,” Salsini is also the author of “The Ghosts of the Garfagnana: Seven Strange Stories from Haunted Tuscany” and two books for children, “Stefano and the Christmas Miracles” and “Stefano and the Medieval Village.”
All are available on Amazon.com and ATuscanSeries.com
