The Authors Book Club

Maria Coletta McLean is the author of the bestselling memoir My Father Came From Italy and the editor of Mamma Mia! Good Italian Girls Talk Back. In 2002, she was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for her contribution to the Canadian literary landscape. Maria is also a member of the Toronto Supino Social Club and maintains a home in Supino, where the patio is still under construction. Otherwise, she lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Her novel Summers in Supino: Becoming Italian was published by ECW Press in April 2013.

Learn more about Maria via ECW Press.

Contact Maria. Follow her on Twitter.

From the publisher:

Every summer Maria and her husband, Bob, went to their little house in the Italian village of Supino, and every year it was a new adventure. Only in Supino would you find a pizzeria in a sheep pasture, a seafood restaurant hidden in the woods, or an electrical cord draped from one balcony to the next so neighbours could share power. In Supino, they celebrate the first figs of the season; host watermelon, azalea, and artichoke festivals; and take pleasure in the magical view of the stars in the summer sky.

Written with humour and heart, Summers in Supinois Maria Coletta McLean’s memoir of these summers with Bob, as she becomes accustomed to the town her father grew up in and the peculiarities of the people who live there. Cousin Guido argues with their neighbour over who can plant a grapevine and therefore reap the harvest. Villagers debate whether one neighbour can trade the installation of some terra cotta tiles and the use of a pizza oven (he has yet to build) for the land beneath Bob and Maria’s patio. And as Maria comes to understand her connection to this wonderful place, Bob proposes they open a coffee bar on the piazza.

Full of wonderfully vivid stories of Italy, Summers in Supinoalso explores loss, grief, and the restorative power of community.

Praise