Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints 2004
Nino Ricci was born in Leamington, Ontario, to parents from the Molise region of Italy. He completed his university studies in Toronto, Montreal and Florence, Italy. A resident of Toronto, Ricci is a full-time writer. Lives of the Saints, the One Book, One Community selection for 2004, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction.
Set in Valle del Sole, a tiny village nestled in the folds of the Italian Appenines, Lives of the Saints tells the story of Vittorio Innocente and his mother, Christina, whose affair with a stranger shatters the innocence of Vittorio’s childhood. As he pieces together the story of his mother’s ‘crime,’ Vittorio discovers truths about the villagers and the village. Valle del Sole harbours century-old superstitions, fears, maliciousness, hypocrisy and a pagan past.
Lives of the Saints is the first in a trilogy of books focusing on Vittorio Innocente. In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone, complete the trio. The trilogy was also made into a movie (titled Lives of the Saints) in 2004 starring Sophia Loren.
For more information on Lives of the Saints and Nino Ricci, visit his website at http://www.ninoricci.com/
