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Table of Contents
About The Book
The self-appointed mayor of a tiny Italian village is determined to save his hometown no matter the cost in this “charming farce that highlights the triumph of hope and community” (People).
Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem: unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town’s pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all the residents will be forced to disperse. In a desperate bid to boost tourism—and revenue—he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.
Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well, and soon everyone wants to be a part of the fictional film—the village butcher will throw in some money if Speranza can find roles for his fifteen enormous sons, Speranza’s wistfully adrift daughter reveals an unexpected interest in stage makeup, and his hapless assistant Smilzo volunteers a screenplay that’s not so secretly based on his undying love for the film’s leading lady. To his surprise—and considerable consternation, Speranza realizes that the only way to keep up the ruse is to make the movie for real.
As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!), Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn’t show up? Or worse, what if he does?
A “warmhearted, original gem of a novel” (Amy Poeppel, author of Musical Chairs), The Patron Saint of Second Chances is perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman and Maria Semple.
Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem: unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town’s pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all the residents will be forced to disperse. In a desperate bid to boost tourism—and revenue—he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.
Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well, and soon everyone wants to be a part of the fictional film—the village butcher will throw in some money if Speranza can find roles for his fifteen enormous sons, Speranza’s wistfully adrift daughter reveals an unexpected interest in stage makeup, and his hapless assistant Smilzo volunteers a screenplay that’s not so secretly based on his undying love for the film’s leading lady. To his surprise—and considerable consternation, Speranza realizes that the only way to keep up the ruse is to make the movie for real.
As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!), Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn’t show up? Or worse, what if he does?
A “warmhearted, original gem of a novel” (Amy Poeppel, author of Musical Chairs), The Patron Saint of Second Chances is perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman and Maria Semple.
Excerpt
Chapter 1: Who Will Pray for the Pipes? 1 Who Will Pray for the Pipes?
Signor Giovannino Speranza, self-appointed mayor of the diminishing village of Prometto, population 212, knew from his sixty-two years of experience in this world that, in dealing with plumbers, one must never show even a hint of weakness. A plumber was the circling vulture of home repair, smug in his knowledge that pipes were the very circulatory system of polite society, and that his poor dope of a client, whoever they might be, was undoubtedly in over their head, and therefore as putty in his unscrupulous hands. These scoundrels were also organized. They had gotten together, perhaps on a plumbers’ getaway weekend, and decided that their services ought to cost a minimum of a hundred and fifteen euros an hour. If one still thought in lire, as Signor Speranza did, that came to two hundred and twenty-two thousand, six hundred and seventy, a number that, if one could even fathom it, was patently criminal.
This knowledge of the depravity of plumbers, and all their known associates, was why, on this particular July morning, Signor Speranza was taking great care to maintain the upper hand. He was standing in the bathtub eating his breakfast, which, of course, was a power move, while a junior plumbing inspector from the Regional Water Commission prepared to cut a meticulous hole in the plaster under the bathroom sink.
“Are you sure you would not be more comfortable at the table, signore?” the young man had asked timidly, upon regarding the circumstances under which he would be expected to work.
“I always eat breakfast in the tub,” Signor Speranza lied, not breaking eye contact and producing a salt shaker from behind the bottle of Ultra Dolce di Garnier. Go ahead, he thought, twitching his black moustache from side to side. Tell me that I don’t.
The young man coughed and dropped his gaze, and Signor Speranza gave a small snort of triumph.
The Speranzas’ hotel, a ten-room establishment with a coin-operated Jacuzzi and a rooftop terrace, where they lived and which they had inherited from Signor Speranza’s wife’s parents, was not the first place in the village the inspector had visited; indeed, it was the last. He had already made the rounds, he and his little clipboard, to a random sampling of homes and businesses throughout the rocks and cliffs of Prometto. His visit had been a long time coming. In fact, Signor Speranza had been putting it off for two years now, through a coordinated system of avoidance. Whenever the Water Commission’s number had shown up on the caller ID at Speranza and Son’s, the vacuum cleaner maintenance and repair business Signor Speranza had inherited from his father, and whose premises doubled as his mayoral office, he would shout for his assistant, Smilzo. Smilzo would then race to plug in the Hoover WindTunnel 2 floor model and hold the nozzle up to the receiver.
“SORRY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Signor Speranza would shout. “BAD CONNECTION!”
This method of postponement had worked like a charm until some diligent civil servant had finally followed up in writing. The date had been set. The inspector was to come and examine the pipes. Any pipes discovered to be in disrepair were to be fixed at the expense of the municipality. For small municipalities that could not afford the cost of repairs and who did not qualify for a payment plan, the water would be cut off, and the commission would assist with the resettlement of displaced individuals.
Signor Speranza had lingered over this last line, and in particular those two words, displaced individuals, with a queasy feeling in his stomach. Then he had laid it aside and in its place opened the large volume he kept on his desk for just such emergencies, titled The Complete Compendium of Catholic Saints and Blessed or Beatified Persons. He had opened to the Ps, running his finger down the appropriate column, and found what he was looking for—St. Vincent Ferrer, patron saint of plumbing. He’d closed the book with a satisfied snap and begun immediately. Ciao, Vincenzo, he had prayed, clasping his hands—with the exception of the rosary, he liked to keep things casual. It’s Signor Speranza. I’m sorry to bother you, but could you take a look at Prometto’s pipes? I know it’s a pain in the ass, but there is no money here.
Now, from his perch in the tub, Signor Speranza glared at the junior inspector. Just look at him, he thought, shoveling the last of his scrambled eggs into his mouth. The young man was crouched alongside the sink, carefully affixing a square of blue painter’s tape to the area he meant to cut open. When he had finished, he leaned back to examine his handiwork, and, finding it infinitesimally crooked, patiently peeled it off and began again.
“Why don’t you just smash it?” Signor Speranza asked, when he couldn’t stand it any longer.
The junior inspector was aghast. “Oh, no, signore. You must never smash plaster. That makes it very difficult to repair.”
Signor Speranza rolled his eyes to the ceiling. The entire village was facing the wrecking ball, dependent on the report of this giant toddler with his clip-on tie and his sensible four-cylinder car, but yes, by all means, let us be careful with the plaster.
Signor Speranza balanced his clean plate on the edge of the tub and fidgeted. He had not been in this particular bathroom for some time, as there had been no guests on this floor of the hotel for at least two years. He had chosen this spot for the junior inspector to work because it was out of the way, but, as he looked around, he frowned. A memory stirred. A leak? Had there been a leak? And if there had been, how had they fixed it? He studied the checked linoleum, which was unique to the third floor, and got a sudden flash of it, swollen around the base of the sink: an enormous, water-filled bubble. His hands went clammy.
“You know,” he said, clearing his throat, “I wonder if you might prefer to see the pipes in the kitchen? It’s cooler there.”
The junior inspector looked up, surprised. “I have already taped, signore.”
“Yes,” sighed Signor Speranza. “I’ve seen you do that.” They both gazed bleakly at the blue-taped square.
“Well…” said the junior inspector into the awkward silence. He bent over his bag, and at that precise moment Signor Speranza glimpsed, gleaming around his adversary’s neck, a silver medallion imprinted with none other than the pallid image of St. Vincent Ferrer himself!
“Signore,” whispered Signor Speranza, his voice trembling with emotion. “You’re a friend of St. Vincent?”
The junior inspector glanced down at his medal and smiled.
Feeling that it was now safe to let his guard down, Signor Speranza dropped to a sitting position, propping his elbows on the rim of the tub. “I’m very impressed,” he enthused. “You do not often find this kind of devoutness now, in young people.”
The junior inspector nodded and pulled on a pair of goggles. “It’s very important, signore. My father says people do not take care of things the way they used to. Someone has to pray for the pipes.” Then he switched on the saw and began to cut into the plaster.
The junior inspector’s words, along with the buzzing of the saw, seemed to bounce and ricochet off the porcelain sides of the bathtub and ring in Signor Speranza’s ears. Someone has to pray for the pipes? He was reminded of a similar argument he had made to the village priest, Don Rocco, regarding vacuum cleaners. “How has the Vatican not considered the need for their protection, Father?” he had asked fretfully after yet another customer had failed to show up for their yearly service appointment, and a search of the otherwise “complete” Compendium had yielded nothing.
Signor Speranza gasped and put his hand to his mouth. He understood everything now. This upstart clerk was not praying that the nation’s pipes might outlast their prescribed usefulness, as he himself had been doing. No! This dastardly pup had been praying instead for their deliverance!
At this instant of terrible reckoning, two things happened. The junior inspector, switching off the saw and pushing back his goggles, gently eased the freshly cut block of plaster from its place in the wall, sending a chalky shower of white dust onto the linoleum, and Signor Speranza, his black moustache trembling, recalled the means by which he had repaired the sink. It came to him as a kind of vision—Smilzo, in shirtsleeves, perched on the edge of the tub, chewing pack after pack of pink bubblegum.
It was the junior inspector’s turn to gasp, as he shone his flashlight into the hole.
“Signore!” he cried. “What is this?”
Resuming his earlier sangfroid, which at this point was the only thing he had left, Signor Speranza glanced into the hole, crossed his arms, and sniffed.
“I think it’s Hubba Bubba.”
Signor Giovannino Speranza, self-appointed mayor of the diminishing village of Prometto, population 212, knew from his sixty-two years of experience in this world that, in dealing with plumbers, one must never show even a hint of weakness. A plumber was the circling vulture of home repair, smug in his knowledge that pipes were the very circulatory system of polite society, and that his poor dope of a client, whoever they might be, was undoubtedly in over their head, and therefore as putty in his unscrupulous hands. These scoundrels were also organized. They had gotten together, perhaps on a plumbers’ getaway weekend, and decided that their services ought to cost a minimum of a hundred and fifteen euros an hour. If one still thought in lire, as Signor Speranza did, that came to two hundred and twenty-two thousand, six hundred and seventy, a number that, if one could even fathom it, was patently criminal.
This knowledge of the depravity of plumbers, and all their known associates, was why, on this particular July morning, Signor Speranza was taking great care to maintain the upper hand. He was standing in the bathtub eating his breakfast, which, of course, was a power move, while a junior plumbing inspector from the Regional Water Commission prepared to cut a meticulous hole in the plaster under the bathroom sink.
“Are you sure you would not be more comfortable at the table, signore?” the young man had asked timidly, upon regarding the circumstances under which he would be expected to work.
“I always eat breakfast in the tub,” Signor Speranza lied, not breaking eye contact and producing a salt shaker from behind the bottle of Ultra Dolce di Garnier. Go ahead, he thought, twitching his black moustache from side to side. Tell me that I don’t.
The young man coughed and dropped his gaze, and Signor Speranza gave a small snort of triumph.
The Speranzas’ hotel, a ten-room establishment with a coin-operated Jacuzzi and a rooftop terrace, where they lived and which they had inherited from Signor Speranza’s wife’s parents, was not the first place in the village the inspector had visited; indeed, it was the last. He had already made the rounds, he and his little clipboard, to a random sampling of homes and businesses throughout the rocks and cliffs of Prometto. His visit had been a long time coming. In fact, Signor Speranza had been putting it off for two years now, through a coordinated system of avoidance. Whenever the Water Commission’s number had shown up on the caller ID at Speranza and Son’s, the vacuum cleaner maintenance and repair business Signor Speranza had inherited from his father, and whose premises doubled as his mayoral office, he would shout for his assistant, Smilzo. Smilzo would then race to plug in the Hoover WindTunnel 2 floor model and hold the nozzle up to the receiver.
“SORRY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Signor Speranza would shout. “BAD CONNECTION!”
This method of postponement had worked like a charm until some diligent civil servant had finally followed up in writing. The date had been set. The inspector was to come and examine the pipes. Any pipes discovered to be in disrepair were to be fixed at the expense of the municipality. For small municipalities that could not afford the cost of repairs and who did not qualify for a payment plan, the water would be cut off, and the commission would assist with the resettlement of displaced individuals.
Signor Speranza had lingered over this last line, and in particular those two words, displaced individuals, with a queasy feeling in his stomach. Then he had laid it aside and in its place opened the large volume he kept on his desk for just such emergencies, titled The Complete Compendium of Catholic Saints and Blessed or Beatified Persons. He had opened to the Ps, running his finger down the appropriate column, and found what he was looking for—St. Vincent Ferrer, patron saint of plumbing. He’d closed the book with a satisfied snap and begun immediately. Ciao, Vincenzo, he had prayed, clasping his hands—with the exception of the rosary, he liked to keep things casual. It’s Signor Speranza. I’m sorry to bother you, but could you take a look at Prometto’s pipes? I know it’s a pain in the ass, but there is no money here.
Now, from his perch in the tub, Signor Speranza glared at the junior inspector. Just look at him, he thought, shoveling the last of his scrambled eggs into his mouth. The young man was crouched alongside the sink, carefully affixing a square of blue painter’s tape to the area he meant to cut open. When he had finished, he leaned back to examine his handiwork, and, finding it infinitesimally crooked, patiently peeled it off and began again.
“Why don’t you just smash it?” Signor Speranza asked, when he couldn’t stand it any longer.
The junior inspector was aghast. “Oh, no, signore. You must never smash plaster. That makes it very difficult to repair.”
Signor Speranza rolled his eyes to the ceiling. The entire village was facing the wrecking ball, dependent on the report of this giant toddler with his clip-on tie and his sensible four-cylinder car, but yes, by all means, let us be careful with the plaster.
Signor Speranza balanced his clean plate on the edge of the tub and fidgeted. He had not been in this particular bathroom for some time, as there had been no guests on this floor of the hotel for at least two years. He had chosen this spot for the junior inspector to work because it was out of the way, but, as he looked around, he frowned. A memory stirred. A leak? Had there been a leak? And if there had been, how had they fixed it? He studied the checked linoleum, which was unique to the third floor, and got a sudden flash of it, swollen around the base of the sink: an enormous, water-filled bubble. His hands went clammy.
“You know,” he said, clearing his throat, “I wonder if you might prefer to see the pipes in the kitchen? It’s cooler there.”
The junior inspector looked up, surprised. “I have already taped, signore.”
“Yes,” sighed Signor Speranza. “I’ve seen you do that.” They both gazed bleakly at the blue-taped square.
“Well…” said the junior inspector into the awkward silence. He bent over his bag, and at that precise moment Signor Speranza glimpsed, gleaming around his adversary’s neck, a silver medallion imprinted with none other than the pallid image of St. Vincent Ferrer himself!
“Signore,” whispered Signor Speranza, his voice trembling with emotion. “You’re a friend of St. Vincent?”
The junior inspector glanced down at his medal and smiled.
Feeling that it was now safe to let his guard down, Signor Speranza dropped to a sitting position, propping his elbows on the rim of the tub. “I’m very impressed,” he enthused. “You do not often find this kind of devoutness now, in young people.”
The junior inspector nodded and pulled on a pair of goggles. “It’s very important, signore. My father says people do not take care of things the way they used to. Someone has to pray for the pipes.” Then he switched on the saw and began to cut into the plaster.
The junior inspector’s words, along with the buzzing of the saw, seemed to bounce and ricochet off the porcelain sides of the bathtub and ring in Signor Speranza’s ears. Someone has to pray for the pipes? He was reminded of a similar argument he had made to the village priest, Don Rocco, regarding vacuum cleaners. “How has the Vatican not considered the need for their protection, Father?” he had asked fretfully after yet another customer had failed to show up for their yearly service appointment, and a search of the otherwise “complete” Compendium had yielded nothing.
Signor Speranza gasped and put his hand to his mouth. He understood everything now. This upstart clerk was not praying that the nation’s pipes might outlast their prescribed usefulness, as he himself had been doing. No! This dastardly pup had been praying instead for their deliverance!
At this instant of terrible reckoning, two things happened. The junior inspector, switching off the saw and pushing back his goggles, gently eased the freshly cut block of plaster from its place in the wall, sending a chalky shower of white dust onto the linoleum, and Signor Speranza, his black moustache trembling, recalled the means by which he had repaired the sink. It came to him as a kind of vision—Smilzo, in shirtsleeves, perched on the edge of the tub, chewing pack after pack of pink bubblegum.
It was the junior inspector’s turn to gasp, as he shone his flashlight into the hole.
“Signore!” he cried. “What is this?”
Resuming his earlier sangfroid, which at this point was the only thing he had left, Signor Speranza glanced into the hole, crossed his arms, and sniffed.
“I think it’s Hubba Bubba.”
Reading Group Guide
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The Patron Saint of Second Chances Discussion Questions
The idea for The Patron Saint of Second Chances originated in part from news stories about tiny villages in Italy that are teetering on the brink of extinction. In a number of these towns, the mayors have come up with clever marketing ploys in an effort to drum up tourism or encourage new residents, such as selling homes for a dollar, or, in the small town of Falciano del Massico, passing a law making it illegal to die—who wouldn’t want to live there, right?! If you were the mayor of one of these villages, what would you do to save it?
Signor Speranza is a character who is preoccupied with the past. Throughout the novel, he is frequently prompted to remember a specific event by some external stimulus—the scent of a flower, the taste of a certain food, a dream, a song. Which of Signor Speranza’s memories did you enjoy the most? Have you had similar experiences, where one of your senses unexpectedly triggered a forgotten memory?
Signor Speranza regards the butcher, Signor Maestro, as his nemesis. Why do you think that is? The closest these two characters come to bonding is in chapter 12, when Signor Maestro is running the craft services table at Signor Speranza’s shop. What is it that these two characters actually have in common? Knowing how the book ends, how do you see future holiday gatherings turning out?
Main characters in dramatic stories often don’t get what they want, only what they need. Comedies, on the other hand, can see the main character get both. We know what Signor Speranza wants—to save his village—but what is it that you think he needs? How does this story help him get it?
The village priest, Don Rocco, functions as a kind of moral compass for Signor Speranza, who, at one point, regards him as an “avenging angel.” Why do you think Don Rocco changes his mind about Signor Speranza’s obvious scheming? To take it one further, what do you think God thinks of Signor Speranza’s plans?
Signor Speranza is a believer in “folk Catholicism,” most notably in his dependence upon his Complete Compendium of Catholic Saints and Blessed or Beatified Persons, which, as Don Rocco points out, he uses much like a phone book. At the end, however, he has to let go of the semblance of control that praying to the saints gives him and take a real leap of faith. If you are a religious person, have you ever experienced anything like this?
Although Signor Speranza’s father died thirty years ago and he has no sons, he continues to call his business Speranza and Sons. Why do you think he does that? How does the change in attitude Signor Speranza experiences over the course of the story enable him to change the name of the business at the end?
At the beginning of the story, Signor Speranza is convinced that the problem with their village is “the young people.” Is he right? How does his viewpoint change by the end of the story?
Ultimately, it’s not Dante Rinaldi who saves Prometto, but the villagers’ own enthusiasm. Why is it so important at the end that Signor Speranza save the version of the movie they made?
The Patron Saint of Second Chances is a farce—a comedy in which characters and events are exaggerated, and the situation continually—and often ridiculously—gets worse and worse until a series of interwoven plot points converge for a triumphant ending. It can be tricky to make the ending of a comedy a surprise, because there is an unspoken contract between the writer and the reader that everything will turn out all right in the end. Even if you saw the ending coming a mile away, was there anything that surprised you about the way things came about? Is there anything you would have changed?
And, finally, is Signor Maestro right? Will it be a boy??
The idea for The Patron Saint of Second Chances originated in part from news stories about tiny villages in Italy that are teetering on the brink of extinction. In a number of these towns, the mayors have come up with clever marketing ploys in an effort to drum up tourism or encourage new residents, such as selling homes for a dollar, or, in the small town of Falciano del Massico, passing a law making it illegal to die—who wouldn’t want to live there, right?! If you were the mayor of one of these villages, what would you do to save it?
Signor Speranza is a character who is preoccupied with the past. Throughout the novel, he is frequently prompted to remember a specific event by some external stimulus—the scent of a flower, the taste of a certain food, a dream, a song. Which of Signor Speranza’s memories did you enjoy the most? Have you had similar experiences, where one of your senses unexpectedly triggered a forgotten memory?
Signor Speranza regards the butcher, Signor Maestro, as his nemesis. Why do you think that is? The closest these two characters come to bonding is in chapter 12, when Signor Maestro is running the craft services table at Signor Speranza’s shop. What is it that these two characters actually have in common? Knowing how the book ends, how do you see future holiday gatherings turning out?
Main characters in dramatic stories often don’t get what they want, only what they need. Comedies, on the other hand, can see the main character get both. We know what Signor Speranza wants—to save his village—but what is it that you think he needs? How does this story help him get it?
The village priest, Don Rocco, functions as a kind of moral compass for Signor Speranza, who, at one point, regards him as an “avenging angel.” Why do you think Don Rocco changes his mind about Signor Speranza’s obvious scheming? To take it one further, what do you think God thinks of Signor Speranza’s plans?
Signor Speranza is a believer in “folk Catholicism,” most notably in his dependence upon his Complete Compendium of Catholic Saints and Blessed or Beatified Persons, which, as Don Rocco points out, he uses much like a phone book. At the end, however, he has to let go of the semblance of control that praying to the saints gives him and take a real leap of faith. If you are a religious person, have you ever experienced anything like this?
Although Signor Speranza’s father died thirty years ago and he has no sons, he continues to call his business Speranza and Sons. Why do you think he does that? How does the change in attitude Signor Speranza experiences over the course of the story enable him to change the name of the business at the end?
At the beginning of the story, Signor Speranza is convinced that the problem with their village is “the young people.” Is he right? How does his viewpoint change by the end of the story?
Ultimately, it’s not Dante Rinaldi who saves Prometto, but the villagers’ own enthusiasm. Why is it so important at the end that Signor Speranza save the version of the movie they made?
The Patron Saint of Second Chances is a farce—a comedy in which characters and events are exaggerated, and the situation continually—and often ridiculously—gets worse and worse until a series of interwoven plot points converge for a triumphant ending. It can be tricky to make the ending of a comedy a surprise, because there is an unspoken contract between the writer and the reader that everything will turn out all right in the end. Even if you saw the ending coming a mile away, was there anything that surprised you about the way things came about? Is there anything you would have changed?
And, finally, is Signor Maestro right? Will it be a boy??
About The Author
Juliet Simon
Christine Simon grew up in a very large and very loud Italian family and now lives with her husband and four children. The Patron Saint of Second Chances is her first novel.
Why We Love It
“I could not put down this sweet, charming, earnest, and hilarious debut novel—except for my copious laugh breaks. The optimistic and hapless duo of Signor Speranza and his assistant Smilzo are the very definition of ‘quixotic.’ After a year of dark times, this novel is a ray of sunshine.”
—Kaitlin O., Editor, on The Patron Saint of Second Chances
Product Details
- Publisher: Atria Books (April 11, 2023)
- Length: 304 pages
- ISBN13: 9781982188788
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Raves and Reviews
"A charming farce that highlights the triumph of hope and community in an often unforgiving world.” —PEOPLE
"The Patron Saint of Second Chances is a rare treasure: both hilariously funny and beautifully written. I was sad to say goodbye to these delightful, large-hearted characters when I turned the final page. Sequel, please.” —Julia Claiborne Johnson, author of Better Luck Next Time and Be Frank With Me
“Whimsical, quirky, and heartfelt.”—Buzzfeed
"The Patron Saint of Second Chances is the most charming, original and hilarious novel I have read in ages. I laughed out loud on almost every page. Simon is the master of creating lovable, quirky and relatable characters that feel like your best friends. All I want for Christmas is to meet Signor Speranza and have my vacuum cleaner repaired at his shop. And I'm desperate to be in the movie, with or without Dante Rinaldi. This novel is something special. Everyone with a sense of humor must pick this up immediately." —Elyssa Friedland, author of Last Summer at The Golden Hotel
"[A] sparkling, hilarious debut… Simon’s wit pervades every pages, with colorful portrayals of Speranza and the town’s quirky inhabitants. This triumphant farce is a gem.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A joyful, charming, and delightfully funny story! Take a trip to Italy and meet a gaggle of villagers whose well-intentioned mayor will stop at nothing to save his town from financial ruin. Simon’s warm-hearted, original gem of a novel is the feel-good read we all need."
—Amy Poeppel, author of Musical Chairs
“Full of slapstick humor (including a rescue from a wild goat) and a large cast of quirky characters, Simon’s debut is brimming with heart… Fans of Fredrik Backman, Phaedra Patrick, and other chroniclers of small-town humor will savor this.” —Booklist (starred review)
“[A] tale that will keep you entertained from first page to last. It’s one of the most amusing novels I’ve read in years, which is just what we need in these dark times.” —BookReporter
“A glorious romp of a book with a cast of characters to fall in love with. Gorgeous, hilarious and brimming with joy. Christine Simon's writing is just a delight.”—Helen Paris, author of Lost Property
“A charming, fast-paced and warm-hearted farce. Upbeat, escapist and a lot of fun.”—Caroline Hulse, author of The Adults
"A tiny Italian village becomes the center of a media storm in this humorous novel by Christine Simon." —LifeSavvy
"This charming comedy, filled with devoted and lovable characters, is a breath of fresh air.” —Christian Science Monitor
Awards and Honors
- ALA Listen List Selection
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