TY - BOOK AU - Smith,Dominic TI - Return to Valetto SN - 9781761067273 U1 - 813.6 23/eng/20230123 PY - 2023/// CY - Crows Nest, NSW PB - Allen & Unwin KW - Australian fiction KW - Secrecy KW - Fiction KW - Families KW - Family secrets KW - World War, 1939-1945 KW - Italy KW - History KW - 20th century KW - Historical fiction KW - lcgft KW - fast KW - Domestic fiction N1 - Includes bibliographical references N2 - A nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II. On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village-and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II-centuries of earthquakes, landslides and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino - three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother - who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Serafino, a resistance fighter whom her own family harboured, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. Like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret - a betrayal, a disappearance and an unspeakable act of violence - that has impacted Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past? ER -