Devon writer releases debut novel
Devon writer Anna Valencia releases debut novel set in the little known Montaltissimo, in Garfagnana, Northern Tuscany and inspired by the local history of the area.
Two women, separated by two generations and continents, both trapped in their grief and unable to move forwards.
Upon inheriting Stazzana, a crumbling farmhouse in the wilderness of northern Tuscany, Emma flies out to Italy in the hopes that unravelling the truth of the past will heal her present.
Local retired farmer Luciano befriends them and finds a new lease of life introducing them to the traditions and wildlife of the mountains, but he has his own secret to harbour, his own need for redemption. His sister, Giuliana, left Italy in 1945, and has spent her life running from the past. The past that Emma now seeks.
Can the truth of what happened at Stazzana set them both free?
Despite graduating in Philosophy and French, it is Italian that truly speaks to Anna Valencia. Her passion has seen the writer live in Rome, Milan, and Tuscany. She currently resides with her husband and three children on the family farm in the Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. Between teaching English to Italian students, she is currently writing her second novel. Her debut, The Chestnut House, is directly inspired by Anna’s farm in the Tuscan village of Montaltissimo, and the local history generously shared by her neighbours there.
Anna says, “The Garfagnana is a little-known part of Tuscany, where the Apennines and the Apuan Alps meet with dramatic mountain ranges and valleys, incredibly beautiful and still very wild – where wolves still roam free and you can walk for days without encountering civilisation. It seemed incongruous to the peace and tranquillity of these little villages that during the Occupation of 1944-1945 they were at the epicentre of the war – the Gothic Line the Germans drew to retreat to ran right through these tiny villages and through our own land at Stazzana with terrifying consequences for all the population. It wasn’t only the Germans the locals had to contend with, there was also the civil war between the Italian fascists still loyal to Mussolini, and the local partisans, fighting for the Resistance and the Allies. Families were divided in a way that can still be felt in the area today. The farm that we bought and renovated, and the 40 acres of land that surrounds it are also incredibly evocative, and before I knew it my characters were living and breathing all around us, all I had to do was sit and write the words down.”
ISBN 9781913913854
Price £8.99
Publication date 28th March 2022
