The Vietri Project

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A young bookseller's search for a mysterious customer in Rome leads her to confront her family's complicated history and Italy's past. After college, Gabriele works at a bookstore in Berkeley and becomes intrigued by the mystical orders of signor Vietri, a customer from Rome. Feeling restless about her future, she quits her job and travels to Rome to find him. Unable to locate Vietri, she embarks on a quest to uncover the hidden truths of his life. Her journey involves following a trail of obituaries, military records, and a memoir from a forgotten village, as well as court records from a communist murder trial. Along the way, Gabriele encounters a diverse array of characters, including the widow of an Italian prisoner of war and individuals affected by the financial crisis. Each meeting brings her closer to her own painful past, marked by her mother's schizophrenia and institutionalization during her childhood, as well as the lingering effects of her family's losses and betrayals in Rome. Through these interconnected stories and voices, Gabriele seeks to understand what it means to belong—to a family, a country, and ultimately to herself. Reconciling these narratives may hold the key to her own identity and sense of place in the world.