A Piazza for Sant'antonio — Paul Salsini

A New Decade, and New Stories IN PAUL SALSINI'S FIRST NOVEL of this series, The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany (first place winner, Council for Wisconsin Writers and Midwest Independent Publishers Association), terrified villagers were trapped in a farmhouse during World War II. 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 (first place winner, Midwest Independent Publishers Association). NOW THESE BELOVED 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 to save a cat, teaches the people of his village understanding. When 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 a serial killer of young lovers.