Galpón Press

First published in Italy, The Patient Wait of the Stones is an evocative literary narrative, both personal and historical, by teacher, translator and writer, Antonio Romani. It is a memorable meditation on the phenomena of place and the compelling force of history and tradition. Galpón Press will publish the English collaborative translation by Romani and novelist Martha Cooley (The Archivist, and the forthcoming, My Little Donkey.)

The Patient Wait of the Stones chronicles Romani’s late-in-life move to a tiny medieval borgo in Lunigiana, a little-known territory in northwest Tuscany, a mountainous region that runs from the Apennines to the Mediterranean Sea.

In beautifully lucid prose he describes his encounters with local eccentrics, including an old bibliophile who has spent his life and fortune on the reconstruction of the village’s ancient castle and on a collection of rare books and manuscripts.

The strange and intriguing past of his new environs prompts Romani to undertake a dual investigation. As he explores the rich history of the village and the Magra River valley – for centuries a zone of transit for pilgrims, merchants, itinerant booksellers and armies – Romani probes as well his own past. Finding himself something of a stranger in his own country, he reorients his relationship to his native land and to the awe-inspiring natural world that surrounds him.

The dry stone walls that patiently wait, witness and sustain the surrounding hillsides are fundamental elements of Romani’s inner as well as outer landscape. For him, the stones are a treasure chest of memory and, too, a challenge to meditate on time, history, and the quietly thrilling peculiarities of place. The walls he painstakingly restores reveal the secret nature of Lunigiana and spur a compelling journey of personal reckoning.

Please contact Victoria Larson at VK Larson Communications for Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs), media, author event inquiries.