A captivating and moving new novel from the international bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos.

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 IIcenturies 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. But 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?
Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto is a riveting journey into one family's dark history, a page-turning excavation of the ruins
of history and our commitment to justice in a fragile world. For fans of Amor Towles, Anthony Doerr, and Jess Walter, it is
a deeply human and transporting testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kinds - even
time.
From the international bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos.