Eight books about Americans in Italy

Juliet Grames is the national and international bestselling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.

Her debut novel was shortlisted for the New England Book Award and the Connecticut Book Award, and received Italy’s Premio Cetraro for contribution to Southern Italian literature.

At Electric Lit Grames tagged eight favorite books about Americans in Italy. One title on her list:

Murder in Matera by Helene Stapinski

New York Times journalist Helene Stapinski’s Murder in Matera fuses two genres, memoir and true crime, in a way that offers readers both the intense personal connection of a memoir and also the revelatory shock of cracking a cold case investigation. Stapinski heads to Basilicata to get to the bottom of the rumors about her great-grandmother Vita, a supposed “loose woman” and “murderess.” The truth that what Stapinski uncovers may change what you know about your own family’s immigrant forebears.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Book, The Movie: Murder In Matera.

The Page 99 Test: Murder In Matera.

--Marshal Zeringue