‘This may be Jo Riccioni’s debut but it has all the hallmarks of an accomplished and assured novelist … While the narrative has us captivated, the prose itself is a sheer joy. Characters are vivid, similes and metaphors are nailed with ease. Themes emerge quietly and then flower to illuminate the sense of the book … [A] romantic and enthralling story.’
—DIANNE DEMPSEY, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald. Read the full review here.
‘A polished and absorbing debut from a new talent in Australian fiction.’
— CATE KENNEDY, Australian Vogel Award judge, author of The World Beneath (winner of the NSW Premier’s Award – People’s Choice) and The Taste of River Water (winner of the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry).
‘Assured from the first page and beautifully written with a light touch, Riccioni’s engaging novel pits free spirits against the confines of a postwar English village’
—PADDY O’REILLY, author of The Fine Colour of Rust (shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal).
‘Riccioni works in what might be called ‘heartfelt slow-motion’, not rushing her narrative, exploring her characters sensitively but meticulously, layering one scene and incident on top of another. She is a careful, rather graceful accumulator.’
— MARK THOMAS, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald. Read the full review here.
‘A rich debut novel. Riccioni weaves together romance and tragedy, and captures a vivid sense of history and place, in a story that is at once expansive and personal.’
— PORTIA LINDSAY, Books + Publishing (4 stars and selected as a Top Pick for first quarter 2014).
Mindfoods Magazine selected The Italians as a Mother’s Day pick in their Special Red edition for March 2014.
