Moreno Giovannoni

The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese Moreno Giovannoni

Tales of war and migration, of feasts and misfortunes - of leaving home and returning home. This is Tuscany as you have never seen it before.

San Ginese is a village where God lingers in people's minds and many dream of California, Argentina or Australia. Some leave only to return feeling disheartened, wishing they had never come back, some never leave and forever wish they had.

The Fireflies of Autumn takes us to the olive groves and piazzas of this little-known Tuscan village. There we meet Bucchione, who was haunted by the Angel of Sadness; Lo Zena, his neighbour, with whom he feuded for forty years; Tommaso the Killer, the Adulteress, the Dead Boy and many others.
These are tales of war and migration, feasts and misfortunes - of a people and their place over the course of the twentieth century.

'I have never read a migrant tale so original, so breathtaking in scope,
or so magical. I have not since stopped thinking about
the characters in San Ginese.' ALICE PUNG