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The Vietri Project
The Vietri Project | Nicola Derobertis-Theye
4 posts | 3 read | 5 to read
A search for a mysterious customer in Rome leads a young bookseller to confront the complicated history of her family, and that of Italy itself, in this achingly intimate debut with echoes of Lily King and Elif Batuman. Working at a bookstore in Berkeley in the years after college, Gabriele becomes intrigued by the orders of signor Vietri, a customer from Rome whose numerous purchases grow increasingly mystical and esoteric. Restless and uncertain of her future, Gabriele quits her job and, landing in Rome, decides to look up Vietri. Unable to locate him, she begins a quest to unearth the well-concealed facts of his life. Following a trail of obituaries and military records, a memoir of life in a village forgotten by modernity, and the court records of a communist murder trial, Gabriele meets an eclectic assortment of the city's inhabitants, from the widow of an Italian prisoner of war to members of a generation set adrift by the financial crisis. Each encounter draws her unexpectedly closer to her own painful past and complicated family history--an Italian mother diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized during her childhood, and an extended family in Rome still recovering from the losses and betrayals in their past. Through these voices and histories, Gabriele will discover what it means to be a person in the world; a member of a family and a citizen of a country--and how reconciling these stories may be the key to understanding her own.
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Victoria6
The Vietri Project | Nicola Derobertis-Theye
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Book #22

review
kspenmoll
The Vietri Project | Nicola Derobertis-Theye
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Pickpick

Berkeley bookstore worker Gabriele fills multiple mail orders of numerous esoteric books,& mails them to a signor Vietri,an elderly Roman man.She has family roots in Rome & decides to try & track down this Vietri.Before her arrival in Rome,she traveled the world alone, running,running,from her fear that she will inherit her mother‘s schizophrenia.Once in Rome she is broken hearted to discover Vietri is not in his home-he is nowhere to be found.🔽

kspenmoll During this challenge she reconnects with her Italian family, learns of Italy‘s imperialistic transgressions, its darkness & violence. She resolves much of her inner being‘s dissonance, comes to know & accept her true self: a member of 2 families, each in a different continent, & in a broader sense, a citizen & woman of the world. (edited) 3y
65 likes1 comment
blurb
kspenmoll
The Vietri Project | Nicola Derobertis-Theye
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#booksandcoffee #publiclibrary #locallibrary #bookhaul

Hanging out at my town‘s library before picking up dinner items to accompany the native corn & tomatoes I got at a nearby farm for tonight‘s feast.
It still feels exciting to me to come here post Covid. I missed the ability to discover new books,peruse the shelves, sip a coffee. ☕️📚 🎉🙌🏻😁

BookishMarginalia Isn‘t it fabulous? Libraries rock! 3y
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review
Well-ReadNeck
The Vietri Project | Nicola Derobertis-Theye
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Pickpick

A charming, wandering novel. Sort of coming of age through a self-initiated quest. #ARC #Edelweiss

68 likes2 stack adds