Italy Memoirs

What do you do when your adult kids fly the nest and you are having a midlife crisis during a global pandemic? You buy a 22 room derelict villa in Italy while grocery shopping of course. Well, that is what Rosie did.

After 64 years, Mezzabotte Coletta, a retired truck driver for a Toronto macaroni factory, is retuning to his native Italia. In his native village of Supino is a rundown villa bought sight unseen by Mezzabotte Coletta 's daughter Maria - an olive branch after years of family struggle. While she and her husband breathe in the chatter of local tradesmen, the fragrant offerings of well-wishing neighbors, and the aroma of fine wine, her father awaits in Canada, anticipating the day he will again touch Italian soil.

A 2020 Audie Award Finalist One of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2019! Now a limited Netflix series starring Zoe Saldaña! This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian...

The Roman Forum, the Leaning Tower, the Piazza San Marco: these are the sights synonymous with Italy. But such landmarks only scratch the surface of this magical country's offerings. In See You in the Piazza, Frances Mayes introduces us to the Italy only the locals know, as she and her husband, Ed, eat and drink their way through all 20 regions - from Friuli to Sicily. Along the way, she seeks out the cultural and historic gems not found in traditional guidebooks.

National Bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun meets Diary of a Bookseller in this charming memoir by an Italian poet recounting her experience opening a bookshop in a village in Tuscany. Alba Donati was used to her hectic life working as a book publicist in Italy—a life that made her happy and...

Can you ever truly move on from the person who shaped you? Set against the vibrant backdrop of 1990s Italy, Forget Nico is a raw, witty, and deeply evocative work of autofiction that explores the complexities of first love, the cages of cultural expectations, and the turbulent journey of...

Annette Joseph's years in Italy revealed this truth: Italy, in all its multifaceted, glorious history and culture has to be experienced in full. Over almost three decades, Italy has fed, entertained, confused, excited, lured, promised, lied, satisfied, occasionally disappointed, and utterly enchanted her. She's left, but can't stay away - she'll always return. Always. Just like a beloved partner....  

A luminous memoir of post-war childhood, adventure and loss on the banks of the Nile. ‘Wonderful – a brave, inventive, touching distillation of memory and imagination’ JENNY UGLOW Inventory of a Life Mislaid follows Marina Warner’s beautiful, penniless young mother Ilia as she leaves...

A 2026 International Book Awards Finalist Readers' Choice Book Award 5-star Ribbon Winner Kirkus Reviews Recommended "Astute and affecting..." ITALY, 1987. ONE DISCOVERY. TWO OUTCASTS. THE SUMMER THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING. Lee is a devout eight-year-old tomboy whose carefully ordered world is...

"Evocative and realistic; captures the tangled feelings of young love and lust." Kirkus Reviews Magazine Northern Italy, 1993. Teenage Lee and Nico have been circling each other since childhood: enemies, best friends, and finally, a couple. But while fifteen-year-old Nico is ready for sex...

In 1944 and 1945, Tom Faulkner was a B-24 pilot flying out of San Giovanni airfield in Italy as a member of the 15th Air Force of the US Army Air Forces. Only 19 years old when he completed his 28th and last mission, Tom was one of the youngest bomber pilots to serve in the US Army Air Forces during World War II. Between September 1944 and the end of February 1945, he flew against targets in Hungary, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Yugoslavia.

Antonio Gramsci was born in Sardinia in 1891, became the leader of the Italian Communist Party in his early 30s, was arrested by Mussolini’s police in 1927, and remained imprisoned until shortly before his death 10 years later. The posthumous publication of his Prison Notebooks established him as a major thinker whose influence continues to increase. Fiori’s biography enlarges upon the facts of Gramsci’s life through personal accounts, and through Gramsci’s own writings to relatives and friends.

From the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful nonfiction debut—an “honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred) In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story—of a long and...

"After Italy: A Family Memoir of Arranged Marriage" is the story of two marriages undone by a dowry and the fallout from that rift on three generations of a Southern Italian family. Enlisting Calabrian folklore, epigenetics, and psychology, Monardo writes from both sides of the ocean, charting her grandfathers’ immigration to a Pittsburgh steel town; her father’s WWII as a medical student in Naples; the family’s marriages—including her own—that were tainted by an Old World curse; and an unlikely path toward international adoption.

Benito Mussolini: The Life and Legacy of Italy’s Fascist Prime Minister profiles one of the 20th century’s most notorious leaders. You will learn about Mussolini like never before.

Now a limited Netflix series starring Zoe Saldaña! This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and...

A personal story promising laughs, surprises, tears, and joy, and guaranteed to warm your heart! When a grandmother embarked on a two-week travel adventure to Italy with her eighteen-year-old twin granddaughters, Margie Miklas’s long-awaited dream became a reality. Excited to share her beloved Italia, she hoped to create a special experience they’d treasure for the rest of their lives.

Fin da giovane, addirittura dal 1911, Benito Mussolini aveva cominciato a scrivere pagine in cui raccontava la propria vita. Aveva proseguito durante la prima guerra mondiale con un diario in cui raccontava le sue avventure di cronista militare dal retrofronte. Nel 1932 aveva a lungo dialogato con il giornalista tedesco Emil Ludwig per descrivere la vita di un dittatore sotto le luci della ribalta e dietro le quinte.

At twenty-four, I left Canada with two suitcases, an engineering degree, and a quiet restlessness I couldn’t yet explain. What began as a master’s program in Barcelona became two years across Europe—France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Morocco, Greece, Switzerland—each place reshaping me in ways no classroom could.

A transformational journey through Italy, India, and Bali searching for pleasure and devotion—the massive bestseller from the author of The Signature of All Things This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made...