The War Ends At Four

by Rosanna Staffa

This is a bravura performance.” —Robin Lippincott, author of Blue Territory: A Meditation on the Life and Art of Joan Mitchell

The War Ends at Four explores the quest of a perpetual outsider looking for a true home while coming to terms with the Italy she left behind and the America she found. Renata, an Italian acupuncturist in Minneapolis, falls madly in love with a charismatic actor. Once married, she discovers his passion is not focused on her alone. With her marriage and her small acupuncture clinic in crisis, she is called to her father's deathbed in Milan. There Renata again faces the slights she suffered in childhood as the daughter of an immigrant from Naples. Gripped by grief and anxiety over her future, she discovers that her father, a survivor of WWII, believed until the end in risk-taking as a life-affirming necessity. With newfound courage, Renata stumbles into the lure of an old love and the magic of a new one.

"It’s hard to say which comes more to sparkling life in Rosanna Staffa’s magnificent debut: the rich cast of characters, or the city of Milan they inhabit. Papoozi, Tito, Renata, you’ll feel you’ve lived and lost with them, and been found again. Their lives are beautiful, heartbreaking, unforgettable. The entire novel is. You won’t be able to put it down once you pick it up, so plan accordingly. And look for more brightness from this rising star. I’m already impatient." —Peter Geye, author of The Ski Jumpers

“What a beautifully complex novel about reaching out and letting go, about the blurry borders between past and present. In Staffa’s generous voice, Milan becomes the reader’s home, Renata our closest friend.” —James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man’s Bluff

Genres: Fiction, Italy

210 pages, Paperback

Published May 10, 2023

About the author

Rosanna Staffa is an Italian-born author. Her debut novel ‘The War Ends At Four’ will be published by Regal House Publishing in May 2023.

Prize winner of the TSR nonfiction prize 2021 with ‘Holy, nominated among the Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction 2021. Her short story ‘Animals with Wings’ is included in the Best Small Fiction 2021.

She is a Pushcart nominee and a Hedgebrook Alumna. Recipient of a McKnight Advancement Grant, Jerome Fellowship, and an AT&T Grant.

Ph.D. in Modern Foreign Languages from Universita’ Degli Studi in Milan and an MFA from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. She is a Licensed Acupuncturist.

Reviews

[M.J. White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never been to Italy but, thanks to Rosanna Staffa's novel, "The War Ends at Four," I have visited Milan in the excellent company of the returning emigre, Renata. She must navigate family, a death, old love and new in Italy, and a problematic husband left behind in Minnesota. I found myself reading slowly, not because the book is in any way difficult, but because I didn't want it to end. Here's hoping this is not the last w see of Renata.

[Jude Atwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The War Ends at Four, Renata, an acupuncturist in Minneapolis, returns to Italy to see her dying father and make sense of what remains of her family.

The prose in this novel flows like lyrics as it explores the intricacies of subtle social interactions and the dangers of things left unsaid. If you're partial to books about adult sibling relationships or books with richly-drawn female protagonists, you owe it to yourself to read this lovely story. It pairs well with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

holding on to what scraps you can recover from the past VS marching onward towards the future VS enjoying the unfolding intimate present, moment by moment... the complicated nature of home and belonging, the delicacy of social interaction, the fine balance of interpersonal relationships and the stagnation of things unsaid... beautiful novel

[Carolyn Halliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love all things Italian so I had to like this book at least a little for its phrases dropped in Italian, its Milano setting, and its author being locally based. I wanted it to be so much more than it is, but it’s not awful.

[Deirdre Fagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“After her mother died, Renata used to ask women for directions, when she knew the way perfectly well; she'd told them she was lost so they would be concerned about her. She'd dropped her backpack to get help putting it back on; she'd said odd things in order to be remembered."

Discover grief’s complexity through evocative character Renata’s journey in this moving meditation on love, loss, grief, and sibling and parental relationships. This finely wrought novel delivers powerful insights you will not soon forget!

[Candi Sary · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Renata secretly lusted for other people’s lives. She liked to guess what was missing between the lines she overheard at bus stops, and cafés. At the end of her second year in Minneapolis, spoken English was still a bit difficult for her, and when she was tired, the words bit with tiny teeth.”
These first words of THE WAR ENDS AT FOUR pulled me right in. Staffa’s writing is beautiful and her use of language is refreshingly original. I stopped at so many breathtaking sentences just to fully savor them. The story follows Renata back to Italy after years of establishing her new home in America. Love, family, death, war and the meaning of home are all addressed in this elegant novel.

[Caroline Igra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one beautiful book. Staffa's protagonist leaves the place she has hesitantly called home for almost a decade, Minneapolis, to visit her gravely ill father in Milan. The trip to her beloved hometown, splendidly described in gorgeous strokes of her pen, inspires a reassessment of life choices regarding love, career, friends, and lifestyle. Staffa lays sentences one beside the other, like a builder using bricks to build a house. The cast of characters is small but rich, adding greatly to the protagonist's experience, most especially, of her native city. This story (which feels like auto-fiction) is dense with emotion and well describes the struggle, incumbent to loss, for definition.

[Christopher Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The War Ends At Four is a finely tuned novel of mood and emotion. Renata must confront an unsatisfying marriage, her father's last days, and returning to her native Milan from Minneapolis after years away. The emotional tension builds from family & friends as Renata must decide if she will continue with the life she's built in America or abandon everything and remain in Italy. The evocative writing brings the reader onto the streets and into the interiors of Milan. The cobblestone pavement, the soaring duomo, the rain, the coffee houses, and the cafes inhabit the story as much as any character. Make yourself a strong espresso, sit on the patio, and savor this novel.

[Beckie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book from my cousin Elliot and I loved the heft and feel of the book as soon as I took it out of the package he sent. The writing was beautiful and the story well told, but a bit confusing for me at times and left much more wanting at the end. I needed more resolution by the author of what Renata decided to do.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A melancholy yet hopeful look at Italian culture that speaks more widely than you would think.

[Anna Fenoglio Tift · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I wanted it to be. Interesting as it referenced Minneapolis while she was in Milan.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review at Reading World

[Lyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely description, but not much story or character growth outside of two chapters

[Judith Praag · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how contained this novel is. A lifetime presented in a relatively small space, both in pages and location; a literary feat.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a charming novel! Fun to see familiar bits of Minneapolis accurately depicted, too!

[Judith Turner-Yamamoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The War Ends at Four, Rosanna Staffa gives readers in fresh language the big and small stuff of life: Memory, family, love, a sense of place. Right this way to the real magically rendered. Highly recommend!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosanna Staffa is an exquisite writer. You can feel that from the very early pages; the tiniest strokes of observation create a deep world. We meet her protagonist Renata in Minneapolis where she is a tireless, tender acupuncturist, often trading her skills for food. While trying to make sense of seven years emigration from Italy and her charming husband’s unfaithfulness, a call comes in the night from her hometown Milan to say that her father is dying. She flies home where her anxious, somewhat inept brother meets her hiding secrets, and their beloved Papoozi is in his last days.

Milan and all the memories since she lost her mother young tug at her from every corner. Slowly, as days pass and her father is cremated, she begins to recall her young life. In the early days after her father’s death (“his arms lay limply on the bedsheets as if they weighed too much,”) Renata begins her to ask herself who is she is and where she belongs. In unraveling other people’s problems and loneliness, she begins to trace the history of her own.

In the beloved streets of her city, each stone or smell holds a key to the things that made her and how and where she wants to spend her days. As she meets family and old friends again and the man she had once so idealized, she begins to conceive of a new life for herself.

A beautiful novel of love, war, hope, and family. Read and cherish it.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minnesota author. Character study. Takes place in Italy.