Book Review of Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith

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book stats:

338 pages, published in June 2023 (I received an advanced copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

you may enjoy this book if you like:

History * Quaint European Cities * Books set in Italy

travel inspiration:

Italia! In recent years, there have been lots of articles about the small Italian villages with dwindling populations, and how some have taken to creative gambits ($1 houses) to attract buyers to breathe new life into them. Return to Valetto is about one such fictionalized version of this type of town, and yes, it did have me googling opportunities to buy affordable (at least at first blush) Italian homes. If, like me, this is but a distant dream, this novel provides the next best way to pretend you're there!

In fact, the author was similarly enchanted by these decaying towns. He was able to visit many while making use of a grant in 2018 and found his ultimate muse in Civita di Bagnoregio, accessible via a pedestrian footbridge (which shows up in the novel) and located in central Italy between Florence and Rome.

about the author: dominic smith

Return to Valetto is Smith’s sixth novel. It follows The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre (2006), The Beautiful Miscellaneous (2007), Bright and Distant Shores (2011), The Electric Hotel (2016), and The Last Painting of Sara De Vos (2017). The last was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and also was highlighted as the best book of the year in multiple publications.

Smith currently resides in Seattle, Washington, and was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He has taught creative writing at University of Texas-Austin, Southern Methodist University, Rice University, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

review of return to valetto by dominic smith

There are certain surface parallels between author Dominic Smith and his main character, Hugh. Like Smith, Hugh is an academic, enchanted by the crumbling Italian towns and has traveled to Valetto as part of a research effort. But Hugh has not picked just any Italian town; he comes from a long line of local inhabitants and plans to work on his academic research from the small, Medieval cottage in Valetto that his mom left to him as his inheritance. It was a spot Hugh traveled to during his childhood summers and one that he remembers fondly, so he is looking forward to six months of uninterrupted time to work. Numbered among the ten remaining Valetto inhabitants are Hugh’s three aunts, all named after fauna (Iris, Violet, and Rose), and his grandmother on the precipice of her centennial birthday.

The trip takes an unexpected twist when Hugh arrives only to discover a woman, Elisa, has recently shown up to stake her claim on the cottage and is currently entrenched within. Elisa claims that after her family helped Aldo, Hugh’s grandfather, in World War II, he left the cottage to her family as a thank you. What happened to Aldo has remained a mystery to his widow and daughters, but they know a threat to their family home when they see one. They quickly go to battle against Elisa to prove that her documentation doesn’t withstand scrutiny.

And with that start, Hugh’s quiet interlude in Valetto is clearly going to become something else entirely.

While Hugh may not admit it openly to himself, he is lonely. His wife, Clare, died from cancer, and his daughter, Susan, is a self-sufficient young adult. He jokes at professional conferences, “I specialize in abandonment,” and the abandonment in Hugh’s life is more than the study of forgotten villages.

As Elisa’s sudden appearance in Valetto portends, Hugh is in for an unexpected family mystery. By pairing up with Elisa to solve the issue of inheritance, they discover what happened to his lost grandfather and uncover a tragedy that befell both Elisa’s and Hugh’s mothers that scarred them forever and whose perpetrator is still in their midst.

Return to Valetto begins with the description of “The Saint’s Staircase,” which “hangs down from the cliffs of Valetto, spiraling into thin air.” This wrought iron remnant of a house destroyed by a 1695 earthquake bookends the novel and is a perfect metaphor for what the novel explores. Time moves along, rendering people, places, and memories obsolete but not without leaving a lasting mark of what once was.

Smith’s characters are vibrant, and the story propels itself at just the right pace. My only critique of this otherwise enjoyable novel was the melodrama that played out at and after Hugh’s grandmother’s 100th birthday, though it did provide a balance and closure that the plot called for.

This is the first novel of Smith’s I’ve read, and I’m very interested in checking out more of his past and future works. And I still have my eyes set on my own deserted Italian villa, though this has tided me over for a little!

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