Summers in Supino: Becoming Italian

Colletta McLean writes a vivid memoir of holidays she and her husband Bob spent in the small village of Supino, Italy (also featured in her previous memoir My Father Came From Italy). She quickly transports readers into the charm and richness of village life %E2%80%94 terra cotta rooftops, hills of beech trees and vineyards, cascading azaleas, friendly neighbors, bountiful gardens, and village shops. Readers can vicariously breakfast at Bar Italia with cappuccinos and cornettos, collect fresh bread and groceries from the street market, attend festivals in the surrounding villages, dine on local specialties, and experience the intricacies and eccentricities of Supinese life. As Bob and Maria's love for the place and the people grows, they begin to dream of living half of each year there. Bob decides to leave his business in Toronto in order to open his own caf%C3%A9 in Supino. That dream is scuttled when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, but the tragic turn also reveals how the summer visitors have become citizens. Bob is mourned as a "son of Supino." The idyll becomes a story of love and family. As a Supinese friend tells Maria, %E2%80%98We are with you, ogni momento, ogni giorno, every moment, every day." Agent: Carolyn Swayze (Apr.) U.S. Distribution: Independent Publishers Group.