Paradiso A Novel

by Steve Capelin

1880. Three hundred Italian peasants abandon the fields of Veneto to follow a dream. They join a French expedition to establish a utopian colony in the Pacific, lured by the promise of liberty and wealth. Lorenzo Perin is prepared to risk everything for his family. Caterina Perin is not convinced. Their two children are eyewitnesses to this ill-conceived scheme.

Eight-year-old Domenico dreams of exotic destinations and a life of adventure. His older sister, Marietta, imagines a life free of obligation. The journey delivers them to the remote jungles of New Guinea where the dream disintegrates. As supplies dwindle, survival seems impossible. The Italians are desperate to escape from their nightmare. Australia beckons, but their biggest challenge awaits them.

Written by a descendant of the expedition, Paradiso is a timeless story of emigrant hope, betrayal, resilience and love––and Australia’s response to the plight of a group of 19th Century refugees. It is based on true events.

345 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2021

Reviews

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradiso (AndAlso Books 2021) by Steve Capelin is a beautifully written account of a particular historical time and place, exploring the harsh reality of life 150 years ago, the human drive and determination to succeed and flourish and to provide a better life for your family, and a tale of adventure (or misadventure) on the high seas. The novel (inspired by or based on real-life events from the author’s family) features immersive and evocative imagery of setting and place. Capelin describes the light, the sky, the sea, the landscape in a captivating way that allows the reader to be fully immersed in the story.
Set predominately in 1880, this is the true saga of 300 Italian peasants who abandon their lives and connections to join a French expedition which promises wealth, freedom and prosperity in a Pacific colony. Capelin is a descendant of this expedition, and his diligent research has informed the book with significant details that depict what the migrants would have seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelt, experienced and felt. The prose is amplified by meticulous editing by Bianca Milroy.
The story features Lorenzo Perin who is prepared to risk everything, and his wife Caterina, who is not so optimistic, and is told through the alternating voices of their two children, eight-year-old Dominic and his older sister, Marietta. Dominic yearns for adventure while his sister would like to escape her life of obligation. But when they arrive in New Guinea – a totally foreign land and climate, peopled with natives, animals and plants that are strange to them – it is apparent that the expedition has not been as well planned or well-resourced as the peasants were promised. Supplies dwindle; disease and illness take hold. What begins as a hopeful dream becomes a harsh nightmare of hunger, sickness, dashed expectations and death.
There is a large cast of characters in this novel, so that I had trouble keeping up with them all; sometimes the names/personalities blended together. But the stable thread of the voices of Dominic and Marietta propel the story forward as the reader discovers, along with the two children, the challenges and difficulties they must confront. Much of the story takes place on one of several sea journeys, and these are depicted with a minutiae of exactly which tools and implements, food and clothing, tasks and work would have predominated.
The last chapter is set in 1918 in Australia, when Dominic is an adult, and although I could see the author’s theme in connecting the earlier migrant experience with the treatment of Italian migrants during World War I, this felt a little disconnected to me, almost as if this could be a completely other book. Perhaps Capelin will develop this plot line into another book, because it is certainly rich material, but quite separate from the main body of the story.
The themes of sacrifice, betrayal, love, friendship, familial obligation, religion, resilience, hope, freedom and escape are navigated with authentic relationships within families, within the wider group and between the migrants and the people they meet along the way. This is obviously a story that has been researched and written with an intense devotion and a determination to pay homage to the author’s ancestors and the challenges they faced.
The most impressive aspect of this book, besides the research, is the writing. Capelin has a real gift for interpreting dialogue, actions and events of the past with authenticity, and his prose is lyrical and detailed. He takes us into the hearts and minds of these weary travellers and gives us a vivid, first-hand account. This fictionalised account of true events will appeal to history buffs, to anyone interested in migration and emigration, to those keen to know more about life in the late 1800’s, and to those who enjoy stories about families and communities who exit one life and embrace another in the hope of a better future.

[Debbie Terranova · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping tale of hope and despair on the high seas. Set in 1879-80, a group of migrants from the struggling north of Italy chases the promise of Paradise in the South Pacific. Alas, the dream is far from reality. Instead of the thriving settlement they'd expected, there is nothing but jungle. They must battle the harsh climate, dysentery, the threat of starvation, fear, regret. Eventually the survivors make it to Australia. Later they found a township called Little Italy, situated midway between Ballina and Grafton in NSW. The ill-fated adventure is based on a true story of triumph despite the odds. A well-written migrant story that had me on the edge of my seat.

[Alan Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

History is never written by children and family history is rarely of interest to those outside the immediate family. Steve Capelin turns these two adages on their head in his meticulously researched first novel Paradiso.
Paradiso is the story of how Steve’s ancestors arrived in Australia from Veneto a small village in northern Italy. Narrated by nine year old Domenico and his sister Marietta, it is a tale of poverty, adventure, boredom, death, misplaced hope, women’s business and the indomitable nature of the human spirit.
The novel takes the reader back in time to the late nineteenth century where we join Domenico and Marietta and their family living in grinding poverty. We learn of their father Lorenzo’s dream of escaping to a promised land and their mother Caterina’s ‘s deep scepticism about the venture. However Caterina eventually agrees to leave her beloved village behind and along with her sister’s family join the expedition to set up a utopian settlement in the Pacific.
From Veneto, Capelin takes the reader on a quickstep journey to Barcelona through the Suez Canal to Aden and then onto Singapore before the villagers arrive at the promised land – Port Bereton in the wilds of Papua New Guinea. Each place and hardship along the way described through the innocent eyes of Domenico and the older, more worldly eyes of Marietta – complete with smells, visceral detail and the odd fart.
The attempt to create a new settlement in New Guinea is a disaster. Following multiple deaths and chronic illness that the hardworking ship’s doctor Goyen cannot cure, the remaining passengers ‘persuade’ the captain of the ship to sail for Australia. Amazingly most of them manage to survive because of the generosity of the French government of Noumea and the philanthropy of some Australian business leaders.
Steve Capelin is a former playwright with acclaimed Brisbane Community Theatre Company Street Arts and there is a distinct filmic quality to his storytelling as the narration shifts quickly back and forth between Domenico and Marietta. In fact, there were times while I was reading the novel that I imagined myself sitting in the theatre watching a two-handed play. All of which leads me to concur with Julian Pepperell that Paradiso would make a great TV mini-series.
When I finished Paradiso, I found myself reflecting that while getting to Australia was never easy, there once was an element of compassion and understanding for the plight of boat people fleeing economic poverty. Even if 40 years after their arrival the Government might lock them up and conscript them as happened to Domenico.
The humane treatment of the desperate, ragtag bunch of Italian peasants who arrived in Sydney in 1881 stands in stark contrast to Australia’s current harsh migration regime where people arriving by boat are either turned back or transported to various Pacific Islands to await their fate.

[Jacinta Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Book Club was very lucky to have Steve Capelin come and chat to us about Paradiso. It was so interesting to hear about the many years of genealogical and historical research and discovery that went into the book. Despite it being set in the late 19th century, to me the storyline still has huge relevance today, when looking at the lengths people will go to, to escape poverty, war etc, and make a new life for themselves. I loved this book.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

[Wendy Symington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic - written so that you can see & feel the displacement, but still sense the optimism. The perspective makes it realistic.