The Vietri Project

by Nicola DeRobertis-Theye

A search for a mysterious customer in Rome leads a young bookseller to confront the complicated history of her family, and that of Italy itself, in this achingly intimate debut with echoes of Lily King and Elif Batuman.

Working at a bookstore in Berkeley in the years after college, Gabriele becomes intrigued by the orders of signor Vietri, a customer from Rome whose numerous purchases grow increasingly mystical and esoteric. Restless and uncertain of her future, Gabriele quits her job and, landing in Rome, decides to look up Vietri. Unable to locate him, she begins a quest to unearth the well-concealed facts of his life.

Following a trail of obituaries and military records, a memoir of life in a village forgotten by modernity, and the court records of a communist murder trial, Gabriele meets an eclectic assortment of the city’s inhabitants, from the widow of an Italian prisoner of war to members of a generation set adrift by the financial crisis. Each encounter draws her unexpectedly closer to her own painful past and complicated family history—an Italian mother diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized during her childhood, and an extended family in Rome still recovering from the losses and betrayals in their past. Through these voices and histories, Gabriele will discover what it means to be a person in the world; a member of a family and a citizen of a country—and how reconciling these stories may be the key to understanding her own.

Genres: Fiction, Italy, Travel, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Novels

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 23, 2021

About the author

Nicola DeRobertis-Theye was an Emerging Writing Fellow at the New York Center for Fiction, and her work has been published in Agni, Electric Literature, and LitHub. A graduate of UC Berkeley, she received an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where she was the fiction editor of its literary magazine Ecotone. She is a native of Oakland, CA and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Devyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads.

The Vietri Project is a dawdling slug of a book about a 25 year old woman that hyperfixates on an old man in Rome instead of getting therapy.

Not saying The Vietri Project was terrible, I just don’t have the patience to read about a 25 year old that already thinks she's old, able to comfortably travel Europe, and actively ignores a large family that loves her.

Someone else may find more sentiment in this book, but I didn't.

[Liz Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite reads in a long time. It's a beautiful take on a coming-of-age novel (and even a better, a later stage coming-of-age—I loved that the narrator was in her mid20s and still felt listless and without direction, something I think many of us can relate to). The author beautifully intertwines how we grapple with larger histories and horrors (on a country-wide scale) and how we grapple with our own personal histories. The core mystery keeps you turning pages, and the ending, although unexpected, is supremely satisfying (it has one of my favorite last lines in recent memory). Highly recommend for someone looking for a fun, lyrical read!

[Natalya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeously written, intimate, mesmerizing book. Who doesn’t love a quest? As the protagonist seeks out her mysterious Italian gentleman, The Vietri Project traverses fascinating, devastating vignettes of humanity, spanning early anti-communism pre-World War II to Europe’s refugee crisis following the recession. At the core of this phenomenal novel are big, existential questions, brought down to earth, and seen through the lens of a decidedly unsettled yet self aware young woman: Do our families define us? And what to do with our time here? It’s profound and beautiful and somehow still a page turner. Could not recommend more highly.

[Jami Moss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from a good reads contest and as a thank you I’m leaving an honest review. I really thought I would enjoy this book the story of a girl working in a bookstore deciding to look up a customer and ask him about his orders seemed like a great little story idea. And the parts of the story where she was looking for him or interacting with her family were good but geez the writing style of this book is horrible. It’s just like one long rambling train of thought. There’s no course for this book, no story arc and no real ending. I’m just utterly disappointed I feel like I got tricked into reading this book by the cute synopsis given.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book just does not seem to really know what its about. It wanders from random Italian history event to another, bringing in various characters about whom we know little. And, I know that published authors can get away with loosening up "rules" for sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation, but the author's rampant run-on sentences and comma splices simply make for confusing sentences and tedious reading rather than creative descriptions. The narrator seems whiney rather than lost.

[Stephanie McNutt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, but it felt so slow and redundant. The premise of the story was fantastic, but I had a really hard time connecting to the characters. The story was a great thought, but just did not feel like it was executed well. I had to keep starting the book over again. In the end, I don’t think I’d purchase this again or but it for others.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from goodreads in return for a honest review. The idea of the story sounded so interesting. A girl going to Rome to look for this man who was always buying multiple unusual books from the bookstore where she worked in California. Turns out it wasn't interesting at all. So many stories that really had nothing to do with anything were thrown in. The author's writing style was so drawn out. Endless sentences filled with commas. I found myself just skimming through towards the end just to get to the resolution which never appeared. Would not recommend to my friends.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried, I really did....... maybe if i was a bit more intellectual i'd have had the wherewithal to finish?
Interesting story of a U.S. bookseller, and her mission to track down an Italian customer of eclectic books. Dry in parts, but it was the authors wit that kept me from waving the white flag sooner!

[Kim Bakos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author certainly is a fan of the endless sentence. The lack of quotes for dialog also is somewhat challenging. The whole premise of the story is a bit far-fetched. That there is no resolution at the end of the book makes it quite disappointing.

[Julie Stielstra · Rating 1 out of 5]

The review in the New York Times sounded promising: a young woman is intrigued by a long-distance customer of the bookstore where she works, who orders long lists of esoteric books to be shipped to him in Italy. It occurs to her (her life doesn't seem to have much active direction) to try to find him when she's doing her solo world tour (nice to have the leisure and money to just fly around the globe when you're bored and discontented). She resists engagement with her family, except if they might be useful. She's worried she might become schizophrenic as her own mother did when exactly her age. That's pretty much it. It's a whole lot of pretentious brooding and navel-gazing, all the "coming of age," "who am I really?" stuff I found tedious when I was twenty-five, occasionally punctuated by equally dull and mechanical sex. I was mainly interested in the old Italian customer, who proves elusive, leaving behind a notebook written in Arabic crammed with maps and notes, which the narrator (we eventually learn her name is Gabriele) obtains under false pretenses. Gabriele sits around while her cousin's friends help translate the contents, and she isn't even interested in that, daydreaming and doodling while the friends seriously parse out the text. Halfway through the not-very-long book, the jaded, weary tone just lost me. Gabriele herself admits she was most interested in meeting Signore Vietri, maybe talking about the books he ordered, and when he isn't immediately producible, slumps back into her ennui. So did I. I don't know what happens after that, but I did try, and failed to care.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

What in the world was the point of this meandering mess? I blame the editors, not the author, for the meaninglessness of this so-called novel. The plot goes nowhere, the tone of the writing is inconsistent (is it supposed to be funny? serious? We'll never know), and I just didn't give a care about anything that was trying to happen here.

Without a plot, it at least could have been a character study about an American whose family is based in Italy, growing up with a mom who has schizophrenia/severe mental illness, why people get lost in life in their mid-20s, weird orders that bookstores receive... A plot is preferable, but at least one of these would've done something with this "project." Dumb.

[Bruce Sembar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stopped reading this book halfway through because nothing was happening. Picked it up again last week and finished it. There were a couple of interesting ideas, but overall it was disappointing. Not a fan of self-discovery-type books and this character wasn't interesting enough for me to care what happened.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Harper Perennial for the gifted copy!

This book was really good, I give it 3.5! The writing style wasn’t for me, but I can appreciate the story and the coming-of-age type of self-discovery time period we all go through. I think fans of Sally Rooney will really appreciate this one!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I had a feeling of grasping that if I could only sift together all of the stories I had heart, if I could understand these stories as a part of one story, maybe, maybe I would get close. I wondered If I was trying to save myself, and I wondered if it would work." The Vietri Project begs the question of what makes your story, yours? Is it one you can write yourself or is it one that's made up of all the other layers of your life and stories of those in your orbit?

What begins as a journey to find a mysterious scholar that ordered thousands of books by mail from the Berkley bookstore where she worked, Gabriele heads to Rome, the home of her mother and her maternal family, and ends up trying to find her own story. Lost in her late twenties, I found Gabriele's character to be incredibly relatable as she searched for some sort of meaning in her life, while resisting building any connections in her life deeply, out of fear of being 'tied down.' Though Gabriele's search is ostensibly for the mysterious Vietri, she ends up digging into both the city of Rome's many layers, and those of her family's. Fearful of eventually succumbing to mental illness like her mother, it isn't until she sees her massive Italian family as individuals that she begins to understand that she too can still be part of her family and be vastly different from what she believed she was predestined to become.

[Stacy DeRobertis-Theye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read. There were so many details that tied together, and I loved experiencing Gabriele’s journey.

[Ari Levine · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, rounded up after a coin flip. The premise of this first novel sounded intriguing in its positive NYTimes review: Gabriele, a 20-something woman working in an academic bookstore in Berkeley, flies to Rome to track down Giordano Vietri, a vanished elderly mail-order client with whom she's become randomly fascinated. Her search gives a certain measure of meaning and structure to an otherwise aimless millennial life of backpacking to and from random hostels on random continents, and Gabriele reconstructs the history of her Rome-born schizophrenic mother's family.

In Rome, Gabriele becomes a vessel for older Italians' traumatic life stories, apparent distractions from the quest that actually (wait for it) might become the real story. DeRobertis-Theye attempts to process the darkest moments of 20th-century Italian history-- Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, the Fascist persecution of Jews and leftists, the political terrorism of the Years of Lead-- attempting a Sebaldian register of high seriousness that exceeds her skills as a writer on the sentence-to-sentence level.

As a protagonist and first-person narrator, Gabriele is a near-total emotional blank, but it's difficult to distinguish her flat affect from the general flatness (and occasional precious overreach) of the novel's prose. For such a short novel, this was slow going. And since the novel's mid-section was languorously paced, and the exposition was rushed without giving the reader time to digest major pieces of information, the narrative reweaving of its denouement felt unsatisfying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper for providing me with a free ARC of The Vietri Project in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

[Steven Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicola DeRobertis-Theye’s debut novel THE VIETRI PROJECT is a well-conceived and imaginative work of historical fiction that presents an intimate portrait of a complex young woman trying to evade her uncertain future that will lead her to discover a great deal about her family, her own life, and the pitfalls we all face. The story revolves around Gabriele, a young woman who recently graduated college and works in a bookstore in Berkley, California. Immediately, Gabriele tells the reader about a man named Giordano Vietri who lives in Rome and orders fifty somewhat obscure books which she is put in charge of locating and shipping to Italy. Once the order is filled it is followed but a series of new ordersfor hundreds of books which in the “Amazon era” seemed surprising. Gabriele becomes fascinated by Mr. Vietri, though she knows nothing about him. By coincidence it appears that Vietri’s address is located near where her mother grew up and not far from where Gabriele spent a number of summers during her teen years visiting relatives.

Gabriele becomes obsessed as the book orders keep appearing at the same time, she is approaching her twenty-fifth birthday and as she begins to reevaluate her life, she becomes upset. Her solution is to leave the bookstore and travel the world finally winding up in Rome in search of Mr. Vietri. As her search for Vietri proceeds she is given a box that contains a book by one of Vietri’s neighbors and she hopes that the book will provide a road map to locate her target. As her search unfolds Gabriele renews her relationship with her cousin Andrea who tries to assist her in her quest.

As the novel unfolds it becomes more and more personal for Gabriele in that her 25th birthday holds tremendous significance as when her mother reached the same age she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic which provokes a great deal of guilt. Gabriele learns details of her mother’s life before she turned twenty-five and blames her birth on the development of her mother’s disease. DeRobertis-Theye writes with a great deal of sensitivity as she expertly explores Gabriele’s inner thoughts as she searches for meaning to her life and how she fit into the larger world. Gabriele’s fear is that as she reaches the same age as the onset of her mother’s sickness she too will suffer from mental illness and be institutionalized.

A stolen electric bill offers Gabriele information which she is convinced will lead her to Vietri, so she decides not to abandon her search and remain in Rome. DeRobertis-Theye introduces a number of important characters which will reorient Gabriele’s life. One of these, Ianucci Loredana, a seventyish widow who lives in an expensive part of Rome rents her a room in her apartment which will begin a relationship that will force Gabriele to learn a great deal of her mother’s past as Ianucci is the mother of Gabriel’s mother’s best friend while growing up.

DeRobertis-Theye creates a sense of realism throughout the novel as she integrates contemporary events into the story, i.e., the Amanda Knox trial, the death of Muhammar Qadhafi, refugees caused by the Arab Spring, Silvio Berlusconi, and the reign of Benito Mussolini. Mussolini’s fascist reign in Italy is explored through the eyes of an author who has written a biography of an Italian artist who was arrested in 1935 for articles written for an anti-fascist Italian newspaper. It seems the artist came from the same village, Aliano as Mr. Vietri and wrote a memoir that recounted his time in the Vietri home village; a widow whose husband served with Vietri in World War II; and a journalist who wrote a story about a pottery company named Vietri. However, what is deeply important is Italy’s uncomfortable history that includes the brutality of an Apennine village that the author presents in the 1930s along with the atrocities perpetrated by Italian troops in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) during its occupation and the murder of Jews under Mussolini.

Gabriele’s search for Vietri unfolds very slowly at the same time she uncovers a great deal about her own family. The key is whether Gabriele finds Vietri, but in reality, does it matter in the larger dilemma of Gabriele’s life. The novel itself relies on the nature of identity, personal and national, along with the dangers of secrecy. For Gabriele she has come of age in a broken world, along with a family that seems to have been broken for generations.

THE VIETRI PROJECT is a strong first novel with an absorbing story line that focuses in large part on how one survives in a world rife with violence, destruction, and madness. The dominant theme is Gabriele’s need to be defined only by her true inner self, even if she was unsure who, or what, that was.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I wasn't so meek about the wrath of strangers on Goodreads, I'd give an honest review and maybe 2 stars.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giordano Vietri has ordered so so many books on so so many subjects from the store where Gabriele works. She's at a standstill in her life, she thinks. She's 25 and, like the protagonists of the recent genre of aimless millennial, looking for something- not clear what- but something and thus she chooses to go find Vietri. She doesn't find him immediately when she arrives in Italy but she does find other things, including her distant relations in Rome. Her quest is also dogged by her concern that she, like her institutionalized mother, has schizophrenia hanging over her. Although this skims the surface in spots, it's well written and thoughtful. No spoilers from me on Vietri. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Excellent read that will appeal to fans of literary fiction.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Booklist review to come.

[Donna Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

All about wishful thinking in an odd unresolved path.

[The Bookish Elf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicola DeRobertis-Theye's debut novel, "The Vietri Project," weaves a contemplative tale of identity, history, and belonging through the narrow streets of Rome and the wider landscape of 20th-century Italian history. The novel follows Gabriele, a rudderless twenty-something American with Italian roots who embarks on a quest to find a mysterious customer from her bookstore days in Berkeley. What begins as simple curiosity evolves into an exploration of family trauma, cultural identity, and the way history's ghosts continue to haunt the present.

The Search for Signor Vietri: A Quest Without Resolution

DeRobertis-Theye constructs her narrative around an elusive center—the titular Vietri, who ordered hundreds of esoteric books while Gabriele worked at a Berkeley bookstore. When she arrives in Rome after months of aimless travel through South America, Gabriele fixates on finding this enigmatic figure. Her mission becomes both literal detective work and symbolic quest for meaning.

The novel's strength lies in its atmospheric rendering of contemporary Rome, a city where ancient history and modern life collide on every corner. DeRobertis-Theye writes:

"Nothing was ever able to stand for just itself in Rome."

This observation becomes the philosophical backbone of the novel as Gabriele navigates a city where "everything had already been touched by so many wars, traumas, millennia." The author excels at depicting Rome as both beautiful and frustrating, inviting yet impenetrable to outsiders.

However, readers seeking narrative resolution may find themselves disappointed. The quest for Vietri deliberately remains incomplete, serving instead as a framework for Gabriele's internal journey. While this artistic choice supports the novel's themes about the impossibility of fully knowing another person's story, it can feel unsatisfying when so much narrative energy is devoted to a search that remains largely unresolved.

Family Trauma and Mental Illness: The Heart of the Novel

Where "The Vietri Project" truly resonates is in its unflinching portrayal of family trauma, particularly Gabriele's relationship with her schizophrenic mother. The protagonist exists in a state of suspension, afraid to build a meaningful life because of the looming possibility that she might develop the same condition:

"The great uncertainty that hung over my life, the thing that prevented me from feeling that my life was real, that it belonged to me, was the dull and predictable fear of becoming like my mother."

DeRobertis-Theye handles these aspects with nuance and sensitivity. Gabriele's recollections of her mother's episodes—including a harrowing memory of being taken to a motel for days as her mother spiraled into delusion—are rendered with painful clarity. The parallels between Gabriele's obsessive search for Vietri and her mother's fixation on conspiracy theories add psychological depth to the novel.

Strengths and Weaknesses: A Mixed Literary Debut

Strengths:

1. Rich setting depiction: Rome comes alive through precise, sensory details that capture both its beauty and contradictions.

2. Cultural complexity: The novel thoughtfully explores what it means to belong to two cultures without fully inhabiting either.

3. Historical integration: The author skillfully weaves Italy's complex 20th-century history—from fascism to the "Years of Lead"—into the personal narrative.

4. Language and style: DeRobertis-Theye writes with an elegant restraint that suits her introspective protagonist.

Weaknesses:

1. Pacing issues: The narrative sometimes meanders without sufficient tension to propel readers forward.

2. Character development: While Gabriele is well-drawn, supporting characters occasionally feel like vehicles for exposition rather than fully realized individuals.

3. Unresolved threads: Several storylines are left deliberately open-ended, which may frustrate readers looking for more conventional narrative closure.

4. Limited emotional range: The protagonist's detached perspective, while psychologically realistic, can create emotional distance for readers.

The Wider Context: Historical and Contemporary Italy

One of the novel's most compelling aspects is its exploration of Italy's fascist past and how that history continues to reverberate in the present. Through Gabriele's research into Vietri's possible military service, DeRobertis-Theye confronts difficult truths about Italian colonialism in Africa and war crimes that have been largely erased from popular memory.

The author also skillfully depicts contemporary Italy through the experiences of Gabriele's millennia cohort—educated young people facing limited opportunities in a stagnant economy. The conversations between Gabriele and her Roman cousins about the lack of prospects for their generation feel particularly authentic and provide important social context.

Style and Structure: Fragments Building Toward Wholeness

"The Vietri Project" embraces fragmentation as both style and substance. The narrative moves between present-day Rome, Gabriele's memories, historical research, and the stories of people she encounters. This structure mirrors the protagonist's attempt to piece together disparate facts into a coherent whole—both about Vietri and herself.

DeRobertis-Theye's prose is contemplative and precise, occasionally achieving moments of striking insight:

"The things I could know about a life were nearly infinite, I could go on collecting knowledge of Vietri for years, there would always be gaps, there would always be something I didn't know, or failed to understand."

This observation captures the philosophical heart of the novel—that understanding another person's life is ultimately impossible, yet the attempt still holds value.

The Quest for Identity: Being Italian-American

At its core, "The Vietri Project" is about the complexity of cultural identity, particularly for those with mixed heritage. Gabriele's relationship with her Italian family is complicated by her American upbringing and her mother's absence. Her faltering Italian becomes symbolic of her incomplete connection to this part of herself.

As she gradually reconnects with her extended family in Rome, Gabriele begins to see how their family narratives might offer stability rather than constraint. The novel suggests that identity isn't something to be discovered whole but constructed from fragments of family history, cultural inheritance, and personal choice.

Final Assessment: A Thoughtful if Imperfect Debut

"The Vietri Project" is an ambitious and thoughtful debut that showcases DeRobertis-Theye's talents as a writer of place and inner life. The novel excels in its evocation of Rome and its exploration of cultural identity, family trauma, and the impossible task of fully knowing another person's story.

However, the narrative sometimes suffers from pacing issues and unresolved storylines. The protagonist's emotional detachment, while thematically justified, occasionally creates distance that makes it difficult for readers to fully invest in her journey.

[Terry94705 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew nothing about this book except that the protagonist worked at a bookstore in Berkeley and ended up in Rome, two cities of interest. I was expecting a fluffy read, but found instead one of the most engrossing books I’ve read this year.

It becomes clear pretty quickly that the project Gabriele has embarked on — tracking down an eccentric customer from the university press bookstore — is a filler, something to focus her while she finds a life path after graduation. She has more anxiety about this stage of her life than most newly minted English majors. Her mother is a schizophrenic and Gabriele worries that she too has the gene for the disease, often known to emerge in a person’s twenties. She even worries that (spoiler alert) the narrative she is trying piece together (the Vietri project) is a symptom of her disposition.

This is an incredibly rich and smartly structured novel. Most debut novels are heavily autobiographical. I almost hope that that is not the case and that this is the result of a terribly literate and fertile imagination. I want more books of this caliber to follow!

[sallie b · Rating 2 out of 5]

A premise with big potential, unfortunately squandered on a rambling, directionless narrative about an equally directionless (and generally unsympathetic) narrating protagonist. I came across it since the description mentioned similarities with Elif Batuman... I unfortunately disagree.. Batuman's protagonist is deeply relatable in way this one just .. wasn't. Probably wouldn't have finished if I was reading it in hard copy but the audiobook made it easier. 2 stars primarily for the bits and bobs of italian history and the compelling (though minimal) discussion of the inter-generational impacts of schizophrenia.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! For whatever reason it just caught me and I read it in a day. The narrator’s personal struggles were well thought out, and they connected to the history she discovered in interesting ways without it being too on the nose. She seemed like a real person.

I listened to the audiobook and I think I probably liked that format more, because I didn’t get bogged down in some of the longer passages of her internal monologue- they just flowed by like thoughts.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman finishes university and doesn't know what to do with her life. So she invents a project to fill a void: go to Italy to find a man called Vietri who had ordered strange books from the bookstore where she works. Hence, the title of the book. Before Italy, she travels and occassionally describes what she saw and experienced during those travels. When she goes to Italy to find him, she reconnects with the Italian side of her family and begins to examine her relationship with her parents. She never feels completely at ease with the Italians; they do not have the same sense of separateness-from-the-family as do Americans.

I enjoyed the character's introversion and feeling of isolation from the world. I loved her description of hostel life, because it reminded of my experiences when I travelled the world and stayed in hostels. I travelled to see the sites and to have some solitude, but it seemed the men I met in the hostels travelled to get sex. And that is how she describes her hostel experiences.

Her descriptions of Italian family life are spot on. Most of my Italian cousin have precarious work, if any. The Italians do not believe in isolating oneself from the family. It always seemed to me that privacy does not exist in Italy, then again, we are Southerners, I do not know about the North.

The writing style was lovely, a stream of consciousness as befits a novel with an introverted protagonist. I gave it only 3 stars because I found the ending anti-climactic and not enough revelations in the novel. The protagonist developed very little. I find that strange considering all of the travelling she had done. Still, I recommend the novel.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was nothing at all like what I expected. From the description it sounded like an intriguing mystery about a Californian book seller and an Italian book lover. Instead, it was about the book seller as she travels in search of the book lover, uncovering a variety of stories, none of which seem particularly relevant. She’s clearly on a journey of discovery with herself as the elusive subject. But she wasn’t a particularly nice person, and I didn’t want to be on this journey with her.

The writing was excellent - beautiful descriptions and wise assessments. It was the story I found lacking. Maybe I’d have enjoyed it better had I not had certain expectations. That said, I feel the description of the book is what created those expectations.

The only part that really captured my interest was about the painter exiled to southern Italy in the 1930s. What was up with the trial? Why did she think there was any connection with war atrocities in Ethiopia? How did the Arabic book fit in? And why such a frustrating, disappointing ending?

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by the publisher—Harper—in exchange for an honest review.

The Vietri Project is the story of how a young woman leaves all that she knows in search of herself and the eccentric signor Vietri, the man who has ordered hundreds of books from the store where she worked. While I loved the premise of the story, the journey that Gabriele was on to make sense of her history and decide her future,, I did not care for the way it was written. I felt the writing was very bland, and it took away from the story.

[Hayley Russell · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first it felt like the book “One Italian Summer” - similar of the main character trying to find herself through her Italian roots, kind of like in the one Italian summer book where she goes on these adventures with her “mom”. But in this book, the main character kept on going down these rabbit holes that were hard to keep up with what her main focus was. There was a lot of history in here and massive paragraphs with no breaks.. would not recommend this book..

[Stephanie | stephonashelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The search for a man in Rome leads Gabriele abroad to not only find him but herself as well. This character-driven coming of age novel handled themes of mental health and family dynamics.

Everything from the setting to the writing was beautiful. Her writing style was so nuanced and subtle which elevated the mystery elements of a novel. It’s almost existential in nature to make you wonder, what truly defines us?

This isn’t a book with a conclusion necessarily, but emulates real life in that way where it just kind of continues on. She was in search of meaning and purpose, aren’t we all.

Would recommend for those who enjoyed the writing styles of Vladimir and Leave the World Behind.