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The Swallows of Lunetto
From Joseph Fasano, the acclaimed author of The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing , comes The Swallows of Lunetto , the powerful story of a young couple's escape from Italian fascism at the end of the Second World War.
Alexandra Bianchi lives and works in Lunetto, a provincial village in Italy's Calabria region, which finds itself ravaged by war in the summer of 1945. Leonardo Gemetti, a young man from Lunetto, has been missing for nearly eight years, and all his village knows of him is that he has carried out an atrocity against the Italian partisans in Mussolini's fallen Republic of Salò. When Alexandra meets a masked figure in the streets of Lunetto, she cannot imagine what she will learn about history and her place in it.
A sweeping love story and historical drama, The Swallows of Lunetto is a timely meditation on the left-right political divide, the reckonings of inherited trauma, and the potential of forgiveness to heal deeply divisive wounds.
Alexandra Bianchi lives and works in Lunetto, a provincial village in Italy's Calabria region, which finds itself ravaged by war in the summer of 1945. Leonardo Gemetti, a young man from Lunetto, has been missing for nearly eight years, and all his village knows of him is that he has carried out an atrocity against the Italian partisans in Mussolini's fallen Republic of Salò. When Alexandra meets a masked figure in the streets of Lunetto, she cannot imagine what she will learn about history and her place in it.
A sweeping love story and historical drama, The Swallows of Lunetto is a timely meditation on the left-right political divide, the reckonings of inherited trauma, and the potential of forgiveness to heal deeply divisive wounds.
376 pages, Paperback
Published November 25, 2022
31 people are currently reading
1899 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Fasano
12 books258 followersJoseph Fasano is the author of the novels The Swallows of Lunetto (Maudlin House, 2022) and The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry include The Last Song of the World (BOA Editions, 2024), The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other Hands (2013). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, the Rattle Poetry Prize, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year."
Fasano is an educator focusing on innovative learning strategies. He is the author of The Magic Words (TarcherPerigee, 2024), a collection of poetry prompts and educational tools that help unlock the creativity in people of all ages.
Fasano's writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Measure, Tin House, The Adroit Journal, Verse Daily, PEN Poetry Series, American Literary Review, American Poetry Journal, and the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, among other publications. He is a Lecturer at Manhattanville University, and he hosts the Daily Poetry Thread on Twitter/X at @Joseph_Fasano_.
Fasano is an educator focusing on innovative learning strategies. He is the author of The Magic Words (TarcherPerigee, 2024), a collection of poetry prompts and educational tools that help unlock the creativity in people of all ages.
Fasano's writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Measure, Tin House, The Adroit Journal, Verse Daily, PEN Poetry Series, American Literary Review, American Poetry Journal, and the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, among other publications. He is a Lecturer at Manhattanville University, and he hosts the Daily Poetry Thread on Twitter/X at @Joseph_Fasano_.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
November 20, 2022
Transcendent. One of the greatest depictions of tyranny and its causes—woven quietly into a tremendous love story—that I've ever read. Highly recommended.
May 17, 2022
…something like that is perhaps beyond words. It’s a monstrous thing. And such things are only given a shape later. In the story we tell.
from the Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
Post-WWII. Lunetto, a village in Calabria, Italy. It is a town in mourning for boys who died in the war. A town that needs something to celebrate. When a man arrives wearing a black silk veil over his face, the citizens believe he has suffered a terrible wound in the war. The gold cross on his lapel indicates that he is a hero. And they plan a feast. When the man is revealed to have been a Fascist participant in war crimes, responsible for the deaths of village sons, he becomes a marked man.
He was a boy when the siren call of fascism inspired him with dreams of Italian superiority, the honor of serving the Fatherland, the call of obedience. It was the start of a dark journey that he cannot live with or escape, tainting existence. He has returned home to see his mother, to assure her he is not a monster. He returns to atone. Knowing he will face death. Perhaps to embrace death.
A young woman in the village recalled the boy and connects with the man. She bears her own invisible scars. Her charcoal drawings reflect what she sees, the sea and her town and her sisters, and she studies them hoping to understand what she sees. To understand her life.
When the man flees, she follows him. They make a simple life together. They make a baby together. But the man cannot escape his fate.
The plot is simple, eloquent, like a Greek tragedy.
The characters’ struggles are not simple. They plumb the deepest questions of human experience.
The trauma of war is intergenerational. The characters know that to be alive is to be broken, that there is no safety in the world. That life means living the questions, the questions that arise from our own selves.
He had been broken so many times, first by war and then by the wars within him, but he had prevailed. That’s all there is, to prevail.
from The Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
The novel considers ageless questions about the source of human evil and how society and individuals respond, about personal guilt and forgiveness. And it is about love that looks deep into another’s soul and, with an almost relentless insistence, points out the path to wholeness.
She told her men come back from their wars and they hold their children in their arms. With those same hands that did terrible things. And they remake their lives.
from The Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
The central character is the woman, Alexandra, the daughter of a man broken by war. She is a worker in the shipyards. She once loved, but was separated, and since then has rejected suitors. After this last war, the men are all broken in body and soul. One day, she sees the masked man who claims to be from elsewhere. He tells her about the war. “I could go my whole life never hearing a gun again,” he tells her. She invites the man to her home. And she invites herself into his life, even after she learns his true identity. She becomes his Virgil and his Beatrice, hoping to lead him through his personal hell. She embraces the risk of living, acknowledging the past but not letting it destroy her.
There is so much to plumb in this story of personal and national trauma. Fasano has indicated the novel arose from his struggles with his own heritage. And this adds another layer to the story.
Learning about one’s ancestors is a two-edged sword. I have personally discovered horror stories: a family massacred by Native Americans; forced conscription; generations of refugees pushing across continents, those persecuted for their faith traveling across an ocean; a runaway teenager fleeing a dictatorial father. And, most appalling of all, a beloved grandfather who spent four months in prison for attempted “ravishment” of a teenage girl.
How do we live with our choices, grow through them and beyond them? How do we love those who have committed evil? How do we live with the legacy of our ancestor’s acts?
Swallows fly in the basilica where Leonardo contemplated death; they fly in and out of Alexandra’s open bedroom windows as she and Leonardo tell their stories. They grow quiet when Alexandra gives birth. They represent hope, new life, renewal.
A transformative story, The Swallows of Lunetto is a remarkable achievement.
I received a free egalley from the author. My review is fair and unbiased.
from the Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
Post-WWII. Lunetto, a village in Calabria, Italy. It is a town in mourning for boys who died in the war. A town that needs something to celebrate. When a man arrives wearing a black silk veil over his face, the citizens believe he has suffered a terrible wound in the war. The gold cross on his lapel indicates that he is a hero. And they plan a feast. When the man is revealed to have been a Fascist participant in war crimes, responsible for the deaths of village sons, he becomes a marked man.
He was a boy when the siren call of fascism inspired him with dreams of Italian superiority, the honor of serving the Fatherland, the call of obedience. It was the start of a dark journey that he cannot live with or escape, tainting existence. He has returned home to see his mother, to assure her he is not a monster. He returns to atone. Knowing he will face death. Perhaps to embrace death.
A young woman in the village recalled the boy and connects with the man. She bears her own invisible scars. Her charcoal drawings reflect what she sees, the sea and her town and her sisters, and she studies them hoping to understand what she sees. To understand her life.
When the man flees, she follows him. They make a simple life together. They make a baby together. But the man cannot escape his fate.
The plot is simple, eloquent, like a Greek tragedy.
The characters’ struggles are not simple. They plumb the deepest questions of human experience.
The trauma of war is intergenerational. The characters know that to be alive is to be broken, that there is no safety in the world. That life means living the questions, the questions that arise from our own selves.
He had been broken so many times, first by war and then by the wars within him, but he had prevailed. That’s all there is, to prevail.
from The Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
The novel considers ageless questions about the source of human evil and how society and individuals respond, about personal guilt and forgiveness. And it is about love that looks deep into another’s soul and, with an almost relentless insistence, points out the path to wholeness.
She told her men come back from their wars and they hold their children in their arms. With those same hands that did terrible things. And they remake their lives.
from The Swallows of Lunetto by Joseph Fasano
The central character is the woman, Alexandra, the daughter of a man broken by war. She is a worker in the shipyards. She once loved, but was separated, and since then has rejected suitors. After this last war, the men are all broken in body and soul. One day, she sees the masked man who claims to be from elsewhere. He tells her about the war. “I could go my whole life never hearing a gun again,” he tells her. She invites the man to her home. And she invites herself into his life, even after she learns his true identity. She becomes his Virgil and his Beatrice, hoping to lead him through his personal hell. She embraces the risk of living, acknowledging the past but not letting it destroy her.
There is so much to plumb in this story of personal and national trauma. Fasano has indicated the novel arose from his struggles with his own heritage. And this adds another layer to the story.
Learning about one’s ancestors is a two-edged sword. I have personally discovered horror stories: a family massacred by Native Americans; forced conscription; generations of refugees pushing across continents, those persecuted for their faith traveling across an ocean; a runaway teenager fleeing a dictatorial father. And, most appalling of all, a beloved grandfather who spent four months in prison for attempted “ravishment” of a teenage girl.
How do we live with our choices, grow through them and beyond them? How do we love those who have committed evil? How do we live with the legacy of our ancestor’s acts?
Swallows fly in the basilica where Leonardo contemplated death; they fly in and out of Alexandra’s open bedroom windows as she and Leonardo tell their stories. They grow quiet when Alexandra gives birth. They represent hope, new life, renewal.
A transformative story, The Swallows of Lunetto is a remarkable achievement.
I received a free egalley from the author. My review is fair and unbiased.
November 23, 2022
I studied in Italy in the 90s, & spent a lot of time in Calabria, & Fasano gets this place, this people, & their spirit absolutely right. SOL is an immersive experience, a wild love story, a trembling account of how politicians find the vulnerable places in our private lives and slip in, remaking us into something we only later see we've become.
I quit writing 20 years ago, and this book made me want to write again, made me believe in what words can do.
-T Sadler
I quit writing 20 years ago, and this book made me want to write again, made me believe in what words can do.
-T Sadler
November 23, 2022
The unsung genius of his generation. Period.
August 26, 2022
I was thrilled to read this book before its release date as an ARC and I’m so excited for it to be introduced to the public. I wanted to write a review ASAP because I see the anticipation growing here on Goodreads! It is worth the wait, and well worth the anticipation.
I’ve long been moved by Fasano’s work, but this book in particular soars differently than his previous novel. It’s a page turner not only because it’s a love story and has an enthralling plot line, but the compelling prose really highlights Fasano’s poetic roots. It is a book concerned with history, love, forgiveness and wisdom. Truly it seems something like a tragic fairytale at times, and resonates with the cupid/psyche myth as well, asking us what we are willing to do with our natural thirst for mystery and love...
Fasano seems to be always concerned with the archetypal webs of life and the characters really highlight the importance of that in his body of work - it’s all the more exciting to feel that relationship to the characters. They feel familiar not only because Italian culture feels warm and inviting, but because their stories and wisdom are in us - in some way - too. This is different from his previous novel which was concerned with just a few characters and moments of dialogue; this book moves differently and seems a new achievement for such a poetry-oriented author. He rises to the occasion.
I felt the story in my dreams and as I walked and worked every day; the voices really felt important to me. Like all of Fasano’s writing, this book has a message, but you need to keep going and keep reading to get it. Somehow, his background in philosophy made me feel like a philosopher and historian all the same reading this book as well.
Particular monologues have resonances that are clearly there to wake us to the history that is so relevant today…masks, fascism, war, famine, and the thirst for connection after collective cultural traumas. I hope readers find this book as moving as I have, and sharing this review will pique the interest of those wanting a little spark of mystery and passion in their reading list.
I’ve long been moved by Fasano’s work, but this book in particular soars differently than his previous novel. It’s a page turner not only because it’s a love story and has an enthralling plot line, but the compelling prose really highlights Fasano’s poetic roots. It is a book concerned with history, love, forgiveness and wisdom. Truly it seems something like a tragic fairytale at times, and resonates with the cupid/psyche myth as well, asking us what we are willing to do with our natural thirst for mystery and love...
Fasano seems to be always concerned with the archetypal webs of life and the characters really highlight the importance of that in his body of work - it’s all the more exciting to feel that relationship to the characters. They feel familiar not only because Italian culture feels warm and inviting, but because their stories and wisdom are in us - in some way - too. This is different from his previous novel which was concerned with just a few characters and moments of dialogue; this book moves differently and seems a new achievement for such a poetry-oriented author. He rises to the occasion.
I felt the story in my dreams and as I walked and worked every day; the voices really felt important to me. Like all of Fasano’s writing, this book has a message, but you need to keep going and keep reading to get it. Somehow, his background in philosophy made me feel like a philosopher and historian all the same reading this book as well.
Particular monologues have resonances that are clearly there to wake us to the history that is so relevant today…masks, fascism, war, famine, and the thirst for connection after collective cultural traumas. I hope readers find this book as moving as I have, and sharing this review will pique the interest of those wanting a little spark of mystery and passion in their reading list.
November 24, 2022
Absolutely brilliant. "If you deny your shadow it becomes your tyrant." This is a book for everyone, but I think teachers should especially consider sharing it with their students, as it deals with the causes and consequences of tyranny. We need writers with this kind of bravery, depth, wit, and grace.
November 23, 2022
As an artist and someone resisting the far-right political wave in the world today, i totally relate to Alexandra, the female lead in Swallows of Lunetto. I just finished it and i'm already planning to read it again. A magical and important journey.
November 23, 2022
The books I love the most are the ones I enjoy reading aloud, to myself or to friends or reading groups. The Swallows of Lunetto is one of those books for sure. It reads aloud like poetry while telling a page-turning story that kept me almost breathless until the end. RMR reading group pick.
November 24, 2022
The beauty & the brutal truths of this novel are breathtaking.
November 28, 2022
I LOVE this book. Finally another writer (think Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Julian Barnes) who cares about telling a good story *and* crafting a great sentence. I'm so glad no overzealous young editor tried to strip away the uniqueness of Fasano's prose to make this book just like everything else that "sells." This is the kind of writer I hope to be. —EL
November 24, 2022
My favorite novel of 2022. I suspect I'll be revisiting this often.
November 25, 2022
Alexandra Bianchi is my new favorite character in fiction. I hope we hear more from her. Fasano's novel is a tour de force, and I'll be teaching it to my students next semester.
July 15, 2022
I was lucky enough to be an early ARC reader for this, and it honestly changed my life. Fasano balances lyrical prose with narrative drive, and what a narrative it is! This is the story—about power, about trauma, about redemption—we need.
December 5, 2022
I absolutely love this novel...the setting, the characters, the absolutely transporting story. I went to one of Fasano's readings as a school project & didn't intend to buy the book but was blown away by what he read, so I bought a copy. So glad I did.
Also, I see that someone has remarked upon the use of Italian in the book, and I feel I should clarify to potential readers that there are literally only a few words/quotes in Italian, and the meanings are either explained later/earlier in the text, obvious, or very easily learned. IMO, it works kind of like Hemingway's use of Spanish in For Whom the Bell Tolls, giving texture and a feeling of place.
I haven't read his other novel yet but am going to. Also haven't read his poetry, but I can feel the poetic energy in Swallows. I really recommend this.
Also, I see that someone has remarked upon the use of Italian in the book, and I feel I should clarify to potential readers that there are literally only a few words/quotes in Italian, and the meanings are either explained later/earlier in the text, obvious, or very easily learned. IMO, it works kind of like Hemingway's use of Spanish in For Whom the Bell Tolls, giving texture and a feeling of place.
I haven't read his other novel yet but am going to. Also haven't read his poetry, but I can feel the poetic energy in Swallows. I really recommend this.
July 23, 2022
Fasano's second novel is an absolute masterpiece of history, psychology, and storytelling. Yes, it's set in Calabria in 1945-46, but its truths clearly resonate with the contemporary US and elsewhere. I hope this book reaches you, whoever you are, because it has things to tell us about how we get caught up in dangerous ideas--and how we overcome them--and it does so beautifully.
(note: ARC reader, pre-release, 7/22)
(note: ARC reader, pre-release, 7/22)
November 13, 2022
Ok, I have a new favorite writer. I haven't been this moved by fiction since I read Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Fasano is very different from Ferrante, though, in style and substance. What they have in common is genius. I was totally transported to Calabria in 1945, and all I can hope for is that Fasano gives us some kind of sequel, not because Swallows isn't complete in itself but because this is a world I want to stay in.
December 6, 2022
Goodreads users: I'll chime in and echo the concern about trolls leaving one-star ratings on books they haven't read. This book has been another victim of trolls creating multiple accounts to leave one-star ratings and then cancel those accounts. Let's do all we can to keep Goodreads a safe and true community.
December 6, 2022
Goodreads community: beware the one-star reviewers. Someone is clearly making multiple troll accounts to hate-spam books they haven't read. I don't know why people do this, but it's been happening a lot on Goodreads lately.
December 2, 2022
I bought this book at Harvard Book Store after Fasano gave an event there, and I'm enthralled. My own research focuses on the psychological aspects of authoritarianism so I'm glad to have this kind of character study of people confronting such phenomena. The characters are deeply developed and the story is profoundly rewarding. At first I wasn't sure about having some of the dialogue in Italian, but it's a very limited amount and I ended up feeling like I was immersed in the world of the characters, so at the end I was won over by the techniques that got me to that place. i'm very glad we have publishers who are able to see literary gems like this in an otherwise very commercial landscape.
November 30, 2022
I got this at a book signing earlier this week and almost literally was not able to put it down. I've just finished it tonight, and I'm sure I'll have more intelligent things to say about it later, but for now I just want to say something like 'wow.' I'm blown away by the sheer poetic language of Fasano's prose, and I have to say I was left in tears (in that kind of beautifully broken, cathartic way) at the end. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. It's simultaneously a love story, a reflection on tyranny and the causes of authoritarianism, and a psychological study of how we become who we are. 6/5 stars.
December 6, 2022
Someone is creating multiple accounts to hate-spam this book with 1-star reviews. Pretty pathetic. I've seen it happen before on Goodreads, which is not well policed. They clearly haven't even read the book. Just trolls.
I, on the other hand, have read it, and I think it's marvelous. It was an assigned text, so I wasn't too excited to get started, but the story & the language won me over pretty quickly. Really a great book that I recommend to anyone.
I, on the other hand, have read it, and I think it's marvelous. It was an assigned text, so I wasn't too excited to get started, but the story & the language won me over pretty quickly. Really a great book that I recommend to anyone.
December 2, 2022
Reads like a long poem with some ineffectual dialogue interspersed. Hard to find a non run-on sentence of prose, but scarcely a line of dialogue beyond a few words or a clause. Such seems to be the case with self-published books like these.
November 22, 2022
A charming story, but lack of historical research / authenticity broke some of the experience. As an example, a Calabrian woman in the 1940s would be named Alessandra, or even Alexandria, not Alexandra. I'm a nitpicker, but some very beautiful verse in this.
February 6, 2024
There's a lot to like here and the story is quite poetic but there's a lot to grapple with as well. It's hard to really talk about much of it without spoiling it (and my fiance is going to read it after me so I don't want to give anything away). What I can say is it is a powerful story of love and regret in a time that I've not explored in depth in either fiction or non-fiction. That of post WW2 and newly free of fascism Italy.
December 5, 2022
Warning: this book contains random passages in Italian, but is advertised as an English book. Impossible to read.
November 27, 2022
Started reading this but had to put it down 20 pages in. This book needed a stronger editor as it is just too dense and overly indulgent in its language. The narrative is halting and the writer seemed more enamored of their own craft than creating enjoyable-to-read fiction. Random insertions of Italian were more pretentious than consistent with the otherwise English text.
April 28, 2023
The Swallows of Lunetto
Disappointing. Entire plot seems implausible - over the course of a few hours a woman falls for a man accused of a war-time massacre and leaves her village with him. She knows about the accusation but doesn’t ask for details about what actually happened. And what about the reader? What are the details of the massacre? Why did it happen? We’re forced to infer.
Lacking historical context makes it hard to have sympathy one way or the other. What, actually, was going on at the time?
The Italian text that the author inserts is *far* too much for an English language novel. Rarely is there an intuitive link to the text for someone who doesn’t know Italian. It’s only by coincidence that I have a bunch of Duolingo under my belt, but if I hadn’t, then something as simple as ‘Gli uomini’ doesn’t add depth to the book, it distracts from it.
Besides that, the emphasis on dreams is too much, and the dialogue is not realistic, with many a conversation that (either flew over my head or) was just pointless (not a literal quote:) ‘how do you know?’ ‘Know what? I don’t’ ‘you don’t’ ‘I don’t think you’re supposed to know. You’re supposed to be in it.’ ‘That’s where we are?’ ‘That’s where we are.’
(Wtf?)
Disappointing. Entire plot seems implausible - over the course of a few hours a woman falls for a man accused of a war-time massacre and leaves her village with him. She knows about the accusation but doesn’t ask for details about what actually happened. And what about the reader? What are the details of the massacre? Why did it happen? We’re forced to infer.
Lacking historical context makes it hard to have sympathy one way or the other. What, actually, was going on at the time?
The Italian text that the author inserts is *far* too much for an English language novel. Rarely is there an intuitive link to the text for someone who doesn’t know Italian. It’s only by coincidence that I have a bunch of Duolingo under my belt, but if I hadn’t, then something as simple as ‘Gli uomini’ doesn’t add depth to the book, it distracts from it.
Besides that, the emphasis on dreams is too much, and the dialogue is not realistic, with many a conversation that (either flew over my head or) was just pointless (not a literal quote:) ‘how do you know?’ ‘Know what? I don’t’ ‘you don’t’ ‘I don’t think you’re supposed to know. You’re supposed to be in it.’ ‘That’s where we are?’ ‘That’s where we are.’
(Wtf?)
September 10, 2023
I tried. I’m glad I wasn’t the person sitting next to him on the plane when he asked how they were enjoying the book. They didn’t know he was the author. I would have said there’s not enough dialogue or action to pull me in. Not transcendent. Self-indulgent.
January 2, 2023
This is my favorite of Fasano's novels. Brilliant storytelling, compelling language. The scene with Leonardo & his mother will stay with me.
April 28, 2023
I’m a huge fan of Fasano’s poetry - many of his pieces have moved me quite deeply - but I just really didn’t vibe with his newest novel. The themes of atonement, redemption, self-determination, etc. that pervade the book are certainly worth exploring, but I found much of his writing to be overly-cryptic and at times redundant. Not to say there weren’t passages that didn’t get me a bit emotional out of their sheer beauty (I mean, why read if not to feel things?), but I think there could have been a better balance of poetic description with plot-driven prose.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews