It’s been twelve years since a visit to Tuscany inspired Milwaukee writer and journalist Paul Salsini to start writing fiction.
The visit was to a restored farmhouse, where his grandfather lived a century before. During that trip, Salsini heard stories of relatives who had fought in the Italian resistance during World War II.
Those stories became the basis for the novel The Cielo, and then a trilogy.
Salsini approached The Cielo initially as a one-off project. "I had never written a novel before," he says. "It stayed in my head and so I felt I needed to continue these stories of the people I created."
These characters maintained their hold on Salsini, and now, he’s published the series' sixth and final book, The Fearless Flag Thrower of Lucca. It's a collection of nine stories that take place in the 1990s.
As Salsini parts with the characters, he says, "I'm having a bit of separation anxiety because they've been with me for so long. I've grown up with them and they've grown up with me and I will miss them."
He will talk about the final installment in the A Tuscan Series next Thursday at Boswell Book Company.
