All This Talk of Love: A Novel
In his long-awaited third novel, Castellani (The Saint of Lost Things, 2005) plumbs the depths of intricate family life and comes up with realistically complex characters, funny quirks that make utter sense, and an examination of the bonds that can both compel and repel. Maddalena and Antonio Grasso have lived in America for more than 50 years. Maddalena didn’t exactly forget about her parents and siblings in Santa Cecilia, Italy, but neither has she visited them. Her own grown children, married mother Prima and grad student Frankie, keep Maddalena’s life full as she firmly anchors herself to her family so as not to lose her careful, silently panicked grip on them since the death of oldest son Tony years ago. When Prima concocts the idea to take everyone to Italy to finally visit the homeland none of them has ever seen and to reunite Maddalena with her relatives, the ensuing and unexpected backlash sharply stings. Family histories and secrets reveal themselves a wisp at a time, layered into the story with sugar and plenty of spice by Castellani’s evocative writing. --Julie Trevelyan