This darling story kept my attention with believable characters and beautiful descriptions of the landscape and tiny Italian town. Dominic Smith's writing style allowed me to experience the story as though I was right there.
The idea of finding an intruder in your family's home was fun to imagine. And became even more entertaining when the family divides itself with regard to managing the home and it's resident. I hope that Smith will soon write another novel for me to enjoy!

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for my egalley!

Thank you to netgalley.com for this ARC.

This was a good story. I loved the descriptions of the scenery of Italy where the story takes places. Told from the perspective of the nephew of his three aunts and grandmother, it tells about family secrets and terrible things that happen during wartime.

My only compliant would be that I found the ending a bit far fetched given the realism of the rest of the story.

This book had a very slow start for me and a lot of characters. Since the book was already a little slow I found it hard to understand who all the characters were. I also kept putting this book down and reading something else because I just wasn't that interested in the beginning.

Once I got to the last third of this book it got a lot more interesting and I finished the book very quickly. I'm giving this book 4 stars based on the second half. If you can get through the beginning of the book it is worth the read.

I also want to note that I started reading this book because it said fans of Amor Towles, Anthony Doerr and Jess Walter would like it. I didn't find that this book really compared to any of those authors.

This is a quietly told story of an American professor and his Italian family who are living out their days in a dying town. Hugh, still grieving the loss of his mother and wife, welcomes his Italian sabbatical but finds himself pulled into family drama as the mystery of his grandfather‘s death reveals itself and the town‘s dark World War II legacy comes to light. A good story, but it‘s the subtle beauty of the writing that makes it sing.

Very slow and long. Rich descriptions with a few interesting characters, but I found the story dull and lifeless.

Reader copy courtesy of the publishers at NetGalley for review.

Professor and historian Hugh Fisher is still grieving the loss of his wife when he returns to his ancestral village in Umbria, Italy, a fictional place called Valetto. His almost 100- year old grandmother lives there with her three daughters, Hugh's aunts and an elderly caretaker couple. Hugh has been left a cottage on the estate by his dearly departed mother but a northerner by the name of Elisa Tomassi has staked a claim to it. According to her, the cottage was bequeathed to her family by the Hugh's grandfather Aldo Serafino. Aldo was a member of the Italian Resistance during World War Two and is absconding since long. This is the intriguing setting for this captivating tale of history, mystery and romance. Beautiful prose and dreamy descriptions add to the reading pleasure. Definitely another hidden gem from Dominic Smith, the award-winning author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. I loved it and will be recommending this to everybody for a long time!!

Thank you Netgalley, Dominic Smith & Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the ARC.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith. Hugh is a widower who is still grieving his wife, he decides to go to spend some summer weeks in the villa in Italy where his mother grew up and his aunts still live. He learns things he never knew about as a child, how his family took in children escaping the fascists during the war, and about loyalties and who supported who. He gets to know his aunts much better, and finds out that there are family secrets. It was a nice mix of present day and history. Good read, and a lot of interesting history. #netgalley #returntovaletto #dominicsmith #italy #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday

I love all of Dominic Smith’s books and this is no exception. His characters are always rich and interesting. I enjoyed the descriptions of the town of valetto and the movement of the narrative from past and present. A fascinating story of deep secrets and past hurts and how they carry forward into future generations. I highly recommend this book.

Return to Valleto is a well-written novel, but just for me. The story takes place in a WWII era village, and follows family twists, secrets, relationships, etc. while it is a well-written mediation on all of these themes, I found the plot boring and I am not into ww2 fiction like many others, so this review is probably more specific to me than the general population and I know there are many readers who will devour this.

This was a beautifully written story with well developed characters. I loved the setting of Italy and it is very atmospheric. A story of family and secrets.
Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

4 stars for Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith. I loved the characters, the setting, and the story.

A historian who studies almost abandoned old villages, Hugh returns to Valetto in Umbria, where his now deceased mother grew up and he spent idyllic summers as a child. His grandmother and aunts live in a medieval villa, and his grandmother has invited family, friends, and former neighbors far and wide to return to the village for her 100th birthday celebration.

Hugh has inherited a cottage next to the villa from his mother, but he is informed that a stranger named Elisa Tomassi has claimed that the cottage was given to her family by his grandfather.

The vividly described scenery is captivating, and the unraveling of the history and secrets of the family and town kept my attention.

Thank you to the author, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review.

There are so many WWII books written about France, Germany and England, but so few about Italy in comparison. Return to Valetto fills the gap. As a family is celebrating the 100th birthday of the family matriarch, a strange appears claiming a cottage as her own. She says it was given to her by the husband of the matriarch who disappeared during the war. He was compelled to leave the village and never returned. With the strangers appearance, we learn what happened to him. The book also confronts the question of what is to be done with a Fascist collaborator when the truth surfaces of his complicity during the war. A thoroughly enjoyable read…I highly recommend it for fans of historical fiction.

3.5-4 stars
An American man goes to live in the very small Italian town that his family is from and we see how the past still impacts people today. What I liked: the scenery, the food, and learning more about the resistance and the impact of WWII on the people of a small, out of the way town. I've always wondered what happened to the collaborators once the war was over. What I didn't love: I found it hard to connect to the characters. Some of them seemed more like "characters" than real people.

Overall, I'd recommend it for fans of historical fiction.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

It was a nice change of pace and points-of-view to read WWII historical fiction set in Italy like Return to Valetto. This is my first time reading Dominic Smith, but definitely not my last.

This was a nicely atmospheric story with a compelling mystery and characters who added color, especially the trio of old ladies, who I adored.

When I learned that Dominic Smith had a written a new novel, I knew that I had to read it. He has been on my must-read list since I was swept away by his writing in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos. And once again Smith has done it: combining wonderfully written characters, carefully constructed plot and some gorgeous prose, he has created a story of Italy that takes in much of the history of the past eighty years.

Hugh Fisher is an historian; his recent book on the subject of abandoned towns and villages and their history. His mother was Italian and he has aunts and a grandmother in Valetto, a very small village in Umbria. He is somewhat adrift at present having lost his mother and wife in recent years. He teaches and writes. His daughter is in graduate school. And he is now on sabbatical, planning to spend much of it in Valetto.

This novel strikes me as an historian’s take on a family history. There is so much here about how we humans look at the world and people around us, though not in any pedantic way. It just flows through the conversations and observations. There is also much thought given to proper attention to the past and the future. There is a line drawn within the family and village from the days of WWII to the present and exactly how they connect through Hugh’s maternal family, the Serafinos.

I strongly recommend The Return to Valetto to those who enjoy literary fiction.

A copy of this book was provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux through NetGalley.

The plot of this story was well thought out and kept my interest throughout the book. World War II stories always keep my interest. There are so many twists and turns in these types of tales. this one is a good read.

As I was reading I kept thinking it was a non-fiction memoir (one of my favorite genres) - that's how compelling this read is. I got completely invested in the characters and for me it was a page-turner. Hugo, a professor, goes back to his family's crumbling small village in Italy that has been lost to time. There are disputes over property rights and family secrets and trauma that get unveiled and you care deeply about Hugo and his family . I found this to be such an interesting read and I had to read the author's bio to convince myself that this is not his memoir because it felt so real to me. I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

This was a powerful and deeply moving story about the terrible effects of war on two families, and the redeeming force of love. Travel to Italy vicariously with this beautifully-written and memorable book.
Hugh Fisher, a widower and historian, specialises in studying abandoned towns. He has returned to Italy to stay in the crumbling historic village where he used to spend his holidays to see his grandmother, and his three aunts. However, he arrives to find that Elisa, whose mother was taken in during the war, intends to put a claim on the cottage, part of the family villa. Elisa and his mother were once good friends. Hugh has extremely dark history to contend with, as he goes on a search for the truth about what happened during the war. He also has to see whether he can finally open himself up to love.

Many of my relatives served in the war, so I am always fascinated by war stories. This is one of the best that I have read, although I found the heart of the story extremely harrowing. I will look out for Dominic Smith's other books.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Here is an interview with him.

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780374607685
PRICE $28.00 (USD)
PAGES 336

I really enjoyed this book - especially for a historical fiction set in Italy which was a change of pace for me. Dominic Smith did a great job on building the characters stories and painting a picture