Back from Florence, Camilla Trinchieri Reports, Never Far from a Mystery

Camilla Trinchieri writes:

I’m back! Still jet-lagged and overwhelmed by mail to go through, magazines to read, phone calls to make - the downside of traveling, but, oh, what a wonderful trip it was.

I spent three days in Rome seeing my nephews and old friends then I was off to Florence. My first challenge was facing four flights up a narrow, steep, uneven staircase to the tiny studio cum skylight I had rented. Thank God, trusty friend and translator Erika, who had picked me up at the train station, insisted on lugging my book heavy suitcase up those treacherous flights. During the two weeks I was there, as I went up and down those stairs several times a day I kept telling myself it was a good exercise that would slough off the wine, the pasta, the beans, the salami and again the wine I was consuming with joyous vigor every day. My muscles ached, but I felt virtuous.

The first day, a Monday, I had an easy class at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai with four junior-year-abroad American women, who were advanced Italian language students: Lauren, Leslie, Emily and Rebecca, all of them eager, interested, and intelligent. Lucky me. I say 'easy class' because we discussed the Italian version of The Price of Silence and their enthusiasm was heart warming. That evening I gave a talk at Kent State University Florence, which I called "A Journey into Fiction Writing." I talked about how I got into writing, interspersed with quotes and vignettes about writing I’d culled from other writer’s writings. It was the first time I had spoken in an academic setting and had been nervous about it for weeks before, but I was able to relax a little when Maria Nella, a good friend who lives in Lucca, showed up with flowers, orange Gerbera daisies that lasted the full two weeks of my stay. It was to her smiling, encouraging face that I addressed for most of my talk.

Erika, who is a professor of Classics at Kent State Florence, gave me a great introduction which also helped. Well, I got through it without too many flubs and stutters, and at the end offered the audience chocolates because I truly believe that reading and writing are food for the mind and the soul. Bread would have worked better as a metaphor, but Tuscan bread is unsalted and begs for a thick slice of prosciutto or cheese which would require plates, napkins and something to help the bread go down. Too complicated. Chocolates would have to do.

Once the first day jitters were gone, I easily got into the routine of the five minute walk in the morning to a caffe’ near the Ponte Vecchio for a cappuccino and a mini sandwich which I ate sitting on a stool looking out at the Arno and the Uffizi Museum on the other shore. Then a fifteen-minute walk to the school, a quick check of my e-mails in the faculty lounge, a chit chat with the administrators and then class. In the days and hours between classes, Erika walked me through the center of her city. We talked, we laughed, we went to see the restored Madonna del Cardellino by Raphael at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, so beautiful and serene a painting you want to sit at its feet for hours and forget about the terrors of the world outside.

We ate. We drank. We had coffee.

In the Cappella Brancacci Masolino brought me right back to suffering with his psychologically acute vision of Eve and Adam’s pain as God expels them from the Garden. We ate and we drank some more.

In the following days I got to meet and teach three more wonderful students: Janie, Cassandra, and Amy. I left the students my e-mail address and hope some of them will write. And I feel I have two new friends, Elena and Serena, the Italian teachers who helped me in class.

I missed out on one new friend: the resident ghost, Bianca, a 16th or 17th century (no one is sure of the dates) young woman who is believed to have committed suicide on the eve of her wedding by throwing herself out of a window of the palazzo. I sat quietly in the room some believe is hers and waited. If she was there she watched me in silence.

I want to write about Bianca. A young woman who kills herself –was she in love with someone else, was her husband-to-be a cruel man? What was she afraid of? Whatever the reason for taking her life, if she is still wandering through her home, what must she think of the students in the 21st century, midriffs bare, rings in their noses, nuzzling each other in the corners, laughing, sleeping through class, free to choose their lives. I’ll try to ask her next time.

Yes, I’ve been invited back. I’ll teach again in March.

As for those stairs to the studio? They didn’t do my waistline a bit of good, but I had a fabulous time.

Camilla Trinchieri in Florence

Camilla on a bridge over the river that runs through Florence. Timeless.

Camilla lecturing on writing in Florence.

Camilla Trinchieri and Erika Bianchi

Camilla Trinchieri with her Italian translator and dear friend, Erika Bianchi! What a great photo.

More Thanksgiving in Florence Pictures

Camilla Trinchieri at an Italian market buying fresh vegetables. Below, preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving! Camilla is an expert cook and used to add recipes to her The Trouble With... mystery series!

Thanksgiving in Italy

From Camilla about Thanksgiving in Italy:

"My Italian thanksgiving is included. Yummy! Italian turkeys are tastier. I brought the cranberry sauce from the States and the corn bread stuffing. We had a great time and I got a round of applause for the cooking. Erika made a great apple cakeand has promised to give me the recipe."

Palazzo Rucellai

See the beautiful site where Camilla Trinchieri has been teaching writing workshops in Florence: The Institute at Palazzo Rucellai.

Camilla Trinchieri Teaching Workshop in Florence, Italy

As we wrote in an earlier post, November has come, and with it, author Camilla Trinchieri has hopped a trans-Atlantic flight to Rome, and taken the train to Florence where she was met by her dear friend and colleague, Dr. Bianchi of the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai.

Camilla will be teaching a couple of workshops on writing and translation at the Institute in downtown Florence.

Curled Up.Com Praises The Price of Silence

Elizabeth Schulenberg reviewed Camilla Trinchieri's The Price of Silence psychological thriller on Curled Up.com.

To begin her review, Schulenberg quotes from The Price of Silence:

“Our lives are like anyone else’s, I have to believe. A simple gathering of facts, of sad little coincidences, with no discernable pattern. Random twists of direction are all anyone can expect, twists that can turn into tragedy and overwhelm you, against which we have tried to defend ourselves by burying them in the basement of our souls, by building a wall of silence to lean on.”

In the middle of the review, Schulenberg talks about how The Price of Silence is written:

"In her first novel written under her own name (previous novels had been published as Camilla Crespi), Trinchieri gives readers a fascinating legal thriller as well as a heartbreaking family novel. She alternates nearly news-report-like descriptions of the trial with sections of the memories, thoughts, and feelings of her main characters. By revealing the events of the story little by little, she increases the suspense, keeping the reader glued to the page, unable to put the book down."

The review ends with this endorsement:

"The Price of Silence is an excellent novel, full of excitement and emotion. Fans of the legal thriller, as well as those who love family drama, will enjoy this great read. I highly recommend it, and look forward to reading more by this author in the future."

Elizabeth summarizes the story in her own words. Read the full review.

From Camilla: Boucheron, The World Mystery Convention

Camilla writes:

This weekend I was in Baltimore attending Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention. It’s the biggest of the many conventions, attended by most of the heavy hitters of mystery fiction.

I got a big bear hug from Harlan Coben which felt great, got to hear Margaret Maron, Gillian Roberts, Louise Ure, and Dorothy Cannell, who can make a stone burst out laughing. Laura Lippman was the guest of honor.

The best was discovering a new author-new only for me- John Harvey, who was the international guest of honor. I just finished reading the second book in his new series-Ash and Bone. I’m told he’s not that well known here and I can’t understand why. I avoid noir novels-reading the newspaper is enough bad news for me-but I couldn’t put Ash and Bone down. Gobbled it up in one day. Anyone who wants to learn about writing-genre or literary-should pick him up. His strong spare prose showed me how few words are needed to paint a heart grabbing picture. I will read more of him.

(Photo courtesy of Henry Chang)
Michael Genelin, Grace Bophy, Camilla Trinchieri and Henry Chang

I was on a panel with three other Soho authors titled “I’ll Take You There,” monitored by our publicity director, Sarah Reidy. The reason for the title- the other authors write series that take place in foreign lands or foreign cultures. Cara Black has bodies crop up in Paris, Grace Bophy in Umbria, Michael Genelin in Slovakia and Henry Chang in New York’s Chinatown. Despite the fact that The Price of Silence isn’t part of a series and it takes place in Manhattan, a young Chinese student is a pivotal character, which sort of made me fit in. Clever Sarah announced to the audience that since I was Italian, Manhattan was a foreign land in my eyes. Maybe they bought it.

That night-Friday-Sarah and Ailen Lujo, the marketing director, took us to a fun restaurant—The Bicycle—where we had a great time eating, drinking and getting to know each other. I spent Saturday attending panels, keeping an eye out for old acquaintances. I hadn’t gone to a mystery convention in over ten years. There were a lot of new faces, and for a bit I felt like a fish thrown out of water, but after sighting a few people I knew from the old days when I was writing the Simona Griffo series, I settled in.

(Photo courtesy of Henry Chang)

Mystery conventions are exciting and exhausting, and they are a necessary part of a crime writer’s life. For months, even years on end, we sit in front of a computer with only our characters for company. It feels good to break out and mingle with like-minded people. Some of the famous may not give you the time of day, some are still pushing to be better known, some are hopefuls who are eager to learn from you. All are lovers of writing. That’s the best company there is.

(Photo courtesy of Henry Chang)

In the very front row, from the left, Henry Chang, Cara Black and Camilla Trinchieri.

Italian Translator, Dr. Erika Bianchi

Dr. Erika Bianchi, the Italian translator of The Price of Silence is a professor at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai. The Institute website has posted this about her:

"Dr. Erika Bianchi has expanded her list of accomplishments by translating The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri into Il prezzo del silenzio.

When the original English edition was published in 2007 it garnered such reviews as “a taut psychological thriller…a gripping, intelligent read…a literary crime novel.”

Dr. Bianchi found the novel engrossing (“it grabs you in the gut and never lets you go”) and the work of translating it satisfying on a personal level (“it was like putting on a dress made just for you.”)

The rendering of American slang into the Italian vernacular presented particular difficulties, the solving of which went beyond literal translation. Prof. Bianchi handled the problem creatively, using contemporary Italian slang to convey the spirit of the original to a non-American audience."

Camilla Trinchieri to Teach Workshops for the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai

When Camilla Trinchieri was in Italy in June 2008 launching the Italian translation of The Price of Silence, translated by Dr. Erika Bianchi, the two of them became fast friends. Dr. Bianchi, Erika, accompanied Camilla at the book discussions and signings, receptions and gatherings.

Dr. Bianchi, teaches at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy, and talked about Camilla's work with fellow colleagues. Before long there was an invitation for Camilla to come teach a couple of writing workshops.

The Institute's website says: "The workshops will be integrated into [...] Italian language classes, [and] will provide a unique opportunity for their students to ponder the different approaches to writing in Italian and English."

Take a look at a downtown Florence map of where the Institute is. What does Camilla think about this? You can imagine! But here's what she writes:

"I'm very excited about going there to teach for two weeks in November. Just the thought of the food starts my heart racing. Slow cooked white beans, pumpkin tortelloni in a burnt butter sauce, chicken with artichokes, boar sausages. I could go on forever. The only thing I don’t like about Tuscan food is the saltless bread."

So come November, Camilla will be back on a trans-Atlantic flight to Rome, and onto a train to Florence, for two weeks of talking and eating and eating and talking! That's the life!

MilanoNera Book Review Translated

Camilla Trinchieri has translated the September 2008 MilanoNera newspaper review of the Italian version of her book The Price of Silence:

"Choosing to write a psychological novel in the form of a legal thriller, Camilla Trinchieri creates a decisively beautiful book that infuses new life in a genre that has become stale and repetitive....And the author's remarkable ability to filter emotions through a seemingly (with An-ling one can never know) "Chinese" culture and sensibility imbues the novel with a special light."

Look at the statements the reviewer made!

"decisively beautiful book"
"infuses new life in a genre that has become stale and repetitive"
"author's remarkable ability to filter emotions through a seemingly [...] "Chinese" culture and sensibility"
"imbues the novel with a special light"

Another Interview! MilanoNERA

Another Italian interview with Camilla Trinchieri was printed in the September 2008 issue of the Milan, Italy newspaper, MilanoNERA.

Visit the MilanoNERA main site.
Read the full September issue.
Read a copy of the Italian interview interview.

Here's the Italian text from the review.

New York. Inizia il processo a Emma Perotti, insegnante italoamericana di mezza eta’, accusata di aver ucciso una sua studentessa cinese, l’enigmatica An-ling. Chi fosse veramente An-ling e quale fosse il legame che la univa a Emma viene rivelato gradualmente attraverso l’alternarsi delle varie fasi del processo ai ricordi di Emma, di suo figlio adolescente Josh e del marito Tom. Scegliendo di scrivere un romanzo psicologico nelle forme del legal thriller, Camilla Trinchieri realizza un libro decisamente bello, capace di infondere vita nuova a un genere sempre piu’ stantio e ripetitivo.

L’autrice, americana, ma di origine italiana e nata a Praga, rende senza fatica le diverse sfumature dei personaggi e i loro drammi, costruendo gradualmente attorno a loro una vicenda ambigua pur nella sua semplicita’. Alla fine, come in Rashomon, la verita’ rimarra’ inconoscibile; ma, per la cultura occidentale, potrebbe anche essere sufficiente un ragionevole dubbio…

Oltre a un’avvincente vicenda processuale, il libro offer un’analisi rigorosa e senza sconti delle tensioni che dilaniano la famiglia media americana. Ogni carattere e’ delineato con precisione: Emma, tormentata da un’antica tragedia, che cerca un riscatto nella pulsione materna verso una ragazza spuntata dal nulla; il figlio, combattuto fra emozioni infantili e la scoperta adolescenziale dell’erotismo, il marito, inconsapevolmente meschino ed egoista. Ma sopra tutto svetta il personaggio di An-ling, ragazza cinese tenerissima e bugiarda, singolarmente infantile e dura, morbosamente bisognosa di affetto ma nel contempo capace di manipolare le persone ai propri fini. E la singolare capacita’ dell’autrice di filtrare le emozioni attraverso una cultura e una sensibilita’ apparentemente (con An-ling non si puo’ mai dire) “cinesi”, investe il libro di una luce speciale.

The Cure for the Wait

Friends around me are bemoaning the end of summer, but I’m eager to move forward, hunker down to work on something new. I gave myself a break after I shipped Finding Alice off to the Italian publisher. I did a pastel portrait of a beautiful friend, painted a new baby’s name on paper (an apple for an “a,” an eye for an “e” and so forth), water-colored flowers on notes thanking friends for delicious dinners. I even tried to play golf with disastrous results. Mostly I waited. To hear if the agent I’d queried wanted to read Alice, to hear if it was a go with the Italians. Waiting, that’s part of the job description of a writer. Wait for an agent, wait for a publisher, wait for the reviews, wait for the royalty statement. I hate it.

There’s only one cure for it—plunge into a new world of my own making. Easier said than done. Where’s the idea? I do want to write a historical, something from way back. I’ve gone so far as to order a book about the period I’m interested in, but the historical needs at least two years of research and I need to write now.

I put the research book on my night table and dug into other books--Story of a Marriage, The Maytrees, Out Stealing Horses and two dread-provoking books by Ruth Rendell. Reading makes me want to write all the more, but I still didn’t have an idea.

A few weeks ago, I met three women for our monthly lunch. An out-of-town friend of one of them joined us. Diane had rented an apartment in the city for a month from a landlord she had never met before, and when she walked into the living room she saw something that startled her. It wasn’t anything scary, just odd. We continued to chat about other things—mostly politics given the times—but my mind’s eye held on to the scene of Diane walking into a home she’d never been in before, owned by someone she’d never met and seeing…what? I can’t say because there it was—the seed of an idea.

I let it sit in a warm nook of my brain to sprout. As the days passed a few tiny leaves began to show, but it’s still pretty weak. I have a premise that involves two women, a man, changing names, an old crime. No title. No middle. No end. That’s normal for me. I like to discover as I write.

The first scene unspooled in my head in the early hours of last week. I’m only half awake at five, six o’clock in the morning, but it’s a magical time for me. The world hasn’t entered my consciousness yet. The only sounds might be from my husband’s soft breaths or the birds on our neighbors’ terrace—reassuring sounds. I keep my eyes closed and start weaving a new world.

In my fully awake hours I’ve been jotting down notes on whatever pieces of paper I find handy at the moment I need them. They’re barely legible and full of scratched out lines, but it doesn’t matter. I’m ready to take the plunge. Wish me luck.

Camilla Trinchieri: Reflecting on Italy, Finding Alice

Camilla writes:

I’ve been home for a month, still in the glow of those wonderful two weeks in Florence and Rome to launch the Italian version of The Price of Silence. Every day I’ve wanted to write about those weeks, but first it was jet lag and then my new novel, which I thought I had finished before leaving, needed a good sweep of the broom.

This new one, Finding Alice, a fictionalized version of my mother’s life in Prague and Rome during WWII, is the story that started me writing in the first place many years ago. The story which turned into my MFA thesis at Columbia. The story that required years of research. The story into which I poured my heart. Now it’s done (unless an editor says otherwise). I’m proud of it. Last week I sent it to my Italian publisher. They had asked to read it as soon as I was finished. After treating me like a literary queen with Price, I was only too happy to have them as my first official readers.

Now that I’m waiting to hear from them, waiting to hear from an agent, (first requirement to be a writer-Patience), I console myself by traveling back to my two weeks of glory.

I’m in a whirlwind of emotions. I’m reading, speaking, breathing Italian, trying to conquer the fear that I will stumble over words during an interview, give a stupid answer to an intelligent question, simply because the Italian words don’t come to me. I end up getting lots of intelligent questions—I am being treated as a serious writer—which allows me to entertain the thought that my novel inspired them.

It’s a good thing I’ve gone over a week ahead of time. I always stay with an Italian friend when I go to Rome and we sit at her kitchen table and chat and chat and my vowels open up, my r’s trill, the vocabulary comes rolling back. When I face a room full of prospective readers in the Florence bookstore, the words come pouring out for an hour and a half. I even tear a little because I’m so happy that Price is in both of my languages. I tell them that ever since I left Rome for New York, I have felt split in half. Now I feel whole.

Between the media buzz, I reconnect with friends, family. I walk the streets of Rome and go back in time. I see the street corner with the flower vendor from whom I bought lilies once for my sister, who has since died, the restaurant where I used to gobble down pizza on Sunday nights with the man I thought was the love of my life, the palazzo that used to be the Foreign Ministry where my father worked.

But the Rome that for years stood still for me is changing. Many reference points are gone. Stores, restaurants no longer there. Life moves on even in the Eternal City. I don’t like it much. I know, letting go of the past is a good thing, but the past is where my writing heart lives. The past looms heavily in all my novels. But I do look forward to what’s ahead. A possible “it’s a go,” from the Italian publisher, a “gripping from beginning to end,” from an American agent. And maybe this time it will be something in the future that will give me an idea for my next novel.

Well, to tell the truth, I’ve been thinking of a historical, something from way back, say, 4000 B.C.

I almost forgot- during my visit to Florence I was asked by the head of The Institute at Palazzo Rucellai to teach six creative writing classes the last two weeks of November. Turkeys are readily available, but I’ve already asked my friend and translator, Erika, to scout out where we’ll be able to buy sweet potatoes. I’ll bring the marshmallows.

Why do I need a translator if I’m boasting that I was spewing out Italian with no trouble at all? Well, the only Italian school I went to was kindergarten with the nuns. About the only Italian writing I could manage is a book for two year-olds. As for speaking, if you shake your hands around a lot with a smile you can get away with murder.

Giancarlo De Cataldo & Camilla Trinchieri in Rome

Giancarlo De Cataldo & Camilla Trinchieri in Rome

Categories for Camilla Trinchieri's Il prezzo del silenzio

Camilla Trinchieri's The Price of Silence, and its Italian translation, Il prezzo del silenzio get categorized in a variety of ways. Knowing that it doesn't fit neatly, and solely, in one kind of literary category is valuable if you're searching for reviews on the internet, or looking for a copy of the book in a store.

The Price of Silence has been categorized in these ways:
psychological thriller, mystery, murder, literary, literature, suspense

Il prezzo del silenzio has been categorized as:
romanzo, romanzi stranieri, romanzi contemporanei, narrativa straniera, narrativa contemporanea, giallo (gialli), letteratura straniera, letteratura statunitense, romanzo giallo

Publicity Comes in Surprising Ways

In researching reviews of Camilla Trinchieri's books in English and Italian, one story kept surfacing, over and over and over: the story about an overdue library book, Camilla Trinchieri's The Price of Silence. The woman who borrowed the book was an avid reader, and died with the book still in her possession. When the book was returned overdue, the library apparently insisted that the 50 cent charge be paid.


This story has resurfaced in blog after blog in multiple languages. Can you believe how many!


Impromptu Librarian

Fox News

CBS11 TV - Dallas

ABC Local - Philly

Wilx.com News 10 - Michigan

The Final Taxi

an Ebay Blog

WayOdd.com

clipmarks

Fly the World blog

Free Republic

SimpleBrowser

Unbelievable Facts

WaarMaarRaar - Netherlands

Knurps - NL

Ron'sLog

StudentStyle - NL

ENTRESSEIO - Brazil

Noticias.Terra.com - Brazil

Topix.com - from Associated Press

The Brea Canyon Monument

Common Sense Logic

Digital Journal 549 views, 13 comments

The Pakistan Daily Times

CaptainDramaticsMom Blog

MadConomist

SP Times of Florida

Metro.co.uk under Weird

Right-Mind from Idaho

Jobsworth at Guy-Sports.com

NieuwsEnzo.info German?

The Blogs at Trentonian

UPI.com Watercooler Stories

Inthekut Blog

Bally Blog - Anything and Everything

I'm unusual.com

MyPNW.com from the Pacific North West, reprinted the article and cited the original as being LoHud.com, from New York's Lower Hudson Valley at this link: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709260369. But the link no longer works.

AOL India News

Mangialibri Interview with Camilla Trinchieri Translated

Here is the English translation of the Mangialibri interview with Camilla Trinchieri that was posted earlier in this blog.

Interview with Camilla Trinchieri by David Frati of Mangialibri

I:A wound, something painful, is hidden behind the story you tell in The Price of Silence. Maybe more than one. Which one do you identify with—the wound coming from An-Ling’s childhood or the one Emma, the protagonist, bears as a mother filled with guilt?

C:My wound is more like An-ling’s, than Emma’s. I too didn’t have a mother. That’s my starting point, even for the lighter stories, the ones you can leave on a seat at the airport. I decided to start writing January 1st, 1986 .I remember that I came home with an idea in my head and I told my husband, “Do you mind if tonight you make dinner?” I wanted to write the story of my mother, but I needed to do a lot of research. I was born in Prague and it was still communist then. To obtain a visa took at least eight months. I would have had to wait without writing, but friends dissuaded me [from stopping] and I decided to write other stories in the meantime. I was working in an advertising agency at the time and my boss refused to give me a raise. I decided to write a novel in which he was murdered. That was the beginning of seven mysteries starring Simona Griffo, an Italian (the reviewer says Italian-American but he’s wrong), who loves art and cooking. They were published under the pseudonym of Camilla Crespi. At a certain point I said stop and decided to use my real name for this story, which isn’t autobiographical.

I: The novel has been translated from English into Italian, a language that you speak and write. What effect did it have on you to be translated in a language that you understand so well? It’s not something that happens everyday to a writer…

C: Having Erika Bianchi translate me into Italian was an incredible joy. I felt myself Italian and American at the same time; I felt whole. It was such a natural process that at a certain point I began to think that the book had even been thought in Italian. Only a few times did I have difficulties understanding a few convoluted passages, but then the original English would disappear and I found myself reading my book. It felt as if the translator no longer existed, that I had done everything.

I: Do you define The Price of Silence a legal thriller? What role does the trial have in your novel?

C: The trial wasn’t in the first draft. I thought of including it to help guide me through the story, but I asked myself: what do I know about trails? It just so happened that I was chosen to be part of a jury in a real trial, and seeing how the American judicial system worked ‘from the inside’ helped me pull it off. It wasn’t a murder trial, however. A guy had stolen $70,000 dollars from his sister.

I: What writers do you look to as reference points?

C: Henry James more than anyone else, even though when I first read him I found his spiraling narration heavy-going. Only when I started writing did I understand that he only hints at things. He never describes a situation openly. He circles around facts; he doesn’t reveal them. For my formation as a reader and a writer, Agatha Christie and all the mystery classics were also very important.

[David Frati-translated by Camilla Trinchieri]

Reviews - The Price of Silence "Engrossing and Fascinating"

"Anyone interested in a story that places heavy emphasis on the complexity of human personality will find this to be an engrossing and fascinating tale. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED."

- John A Broussard

From I Love A Mystery Newsletter June 2008

Ghigliottina

Ghigliottina's Matteo Chiavarone gave a strongly positive review of Camilla Trinchieri's Italian translation of The Price of Silence, Il prezzo del silenzio, in the June 30th edition (ANNO II Num. 26-27 del 30 Giugno 2008).

Quoted in Italian from the page long review:

"Un libro che ti costringe ad andare avanti, ti coinvolge. Una prova di valore a cui bisogna dare merito a lei, che si farà sicuramente conoscere, e alla casa editrice che ha creduto fortemente in lei. "

English translation:

"A book that forces you to keep going, that involves you.

A worthy effort for which we must give praise both to her [the author], who will surely make herself known, and to the publishing house who strongly believed in her."

Italian Mangia Libri Interviews Camilla Trinchieri

Italian Mangia Libri posts an interview with Camilla Trinchieri about Il prezzo del silenzio.

Click the link to read Intervista a Camilla Trinchieri.

Camilla Trinchieri in Florence

Fahrenheit Site for Camilla Trinchieri

Here's Radio3 Fahrenheit's site for Camilla Trinchieri's Il prezzo del silenzio:



The review starts out well. Even us only partially literate in Italian can tell that "perfetto" means "perfect!"

"Un perfetto romanzo di detection ...."

The interview can be listened to as a PODCAST.

Raving Review: BookLoons

This just off the net. A review by Tim Davis at BookLoons.com:

"The Price of Silence - gripping and powerful as a tale of passion, sorrow, duplicity, guilt, and redemption - is a narrative told in alternating points of view: Emma's, Tom's, and Josh's. With the progress of Emma's murder trial unfolding throughout the novel, with flashback perspectives from the key characters, and with the truth about An-Ling being gradually revealed through her recovered e-mails, The Price of Silence gradually builds to a fierce crescendo within which unutterable obsessions, family tragedies, and intense secrets collide in a pulse-pounding conclusion.

As a mystery, thriller, and psychological drama, Camilla Trinchieri's spell-binding novel is a first-class literary achievement. Don't miss it! "

BookLoons.com

June 25 2008 - THE day in the life of a book translator and her author!

Erika Bianchi, translator for Il prezzo del silenzio sent in her June 25, 2008 "Il prezzo del silenzio" Day schedule.

Breaking news update. Hot off the net. Temperatures in Rome exceeding hot!
Around 800 degrees Celsius! (says Erika!)

• 7, 30 leave home and buy l'Unità, VERY FAMOUS AND READ (leftist) newspaper to read the interview with Camilla Trinchieri (Update: interview wasn't in today's edition)
  
• 7,50 train from Florence to Rome
• 9,30 arrival in Rome, meet up with Camilla at the station
• 9,31 buy Anna, another VERY FAMOUS AND READ MAGAZINE with a piece (of undefined nature) on Prezzo
• 10 am - 3 pm preparation for the race!
• 3,30 taxi to RAI studios
• 4,20-5,20 Camilla's interview at Farhenheit
  
• 5,30 fastest possible taxi to Feltrinelli bookstore in the city center
• 6 book reading
• 7,30 two more interviews for journalists, bloggers etc.
• 8,30 dinner with publishers
• 11 pm ... Total COLLAPSE!
  

Prezzo listed in top ten sellers at Nuovo Minerva Ingrosso

Il prezzo del silenzio is listed in the top ten selling books on the Nuova Minerva Ingrosso site, currently at #8!

"Prezzo" showing up in MySpace, Blogs

Dimibox on MySpace has recently listed Il prezzo del silenzio among his books.

Camiz on his WordPress Blog posted the book covers.

Italian Literature Review.


To date, 9 people have listed "Prezzo" on their shelves at aNobii


Mappi on an Italian social networking site called Splinder.

Parola del Giorno.

In raraMente.net.

The Mystery Gazette.

Thriller Magazine.

RTL 102.5 Non Stop News - Audio Interview

Radio interview on RTL 102.5 in Italian with Camilla Trinchieri. Listen here!

Il prezzo del silenzio, un thriller psicologico della scrittrice italo-americana Camilla Trinchieri: intervista all'autrice

Marcos Y Marcos Florence Event Photos

Check out the good photos from the Florence Il prezzo del silenzio book launch. Marcos Y Marcos, the publisher has posted them, with a great quote from Camilla.

From the June 19 presentation at the Edison di Firenze bookstore in Florence.
"Sono contenta di essere qui; per via di mio padre, e di una fetta della mia vita, mi sento italiana per metà. Scrivo in inglese, vivo a New York da ventotto anni, ma ho sempre portato l'Italia dentro di me. Vedere il mio romanzo pubblicato qui mi ha fatto sentire completa".

(Tentative English translation!)

"I am happy to be here; through my father, and through one of my life accomplishments, I feel part Italian. I write in English, live in New York for twenty years now, but have always carried Italy inside me. To see my book published here makes me feel complete."

Photos

Camilla Trinchieri and her translator, Erika Bianchi.

Florence Book Reading

Camilla Trinchieri and her translator Erika Bianchi, with two other authors spoke to a gathering of over 50 people, with much laughter, applause and book buying!

Camilla in white, at center. Erika in black, on the left side of the photo.

GRAZIA Magazine: Book Review

Camilla Trinchieri at NewMonde Chinese restaurant in Cary, North Carolina

The GRAZIA magazine Il prezzo del silenzio review was published with the photo above. The magazine isn't available on the internet to link to, so we've translated the review.

Blog writer comment: If there's a category for 'haiku' book reviews, this one would be a close candidate! Part of it is the Italian phrasing, which makes for swift reading in Italian, and a little abruptness in English. It's like translating from Chinese. Same thing. Abrupt, but the short phrases are so readily absorbed... except, perhaps the last line. And what do you make of the second to the last line! Is that a friendly "clearly written by a woman," or a less-than-friendly "clearly written by a woman?" It's a woman's magazine, does that help us know?

The GRAZIA Magazine review of Il prezzo del silenzio, translated into English:

Emma, a welcoming woman, teaches English to immigrants and opens the door of her home to An-ling, inviting her to stay with her family: husband and son. But the young Chinese woman dies and Emma is put on trial for her murder.

An-ling, the mysterious woman, has knocked down the wall of silence, but the truth has crushed her and the family. A novel clearly written by a woman. Background of denunciation.

From Rome to Florence, Before the Book Presentation

From Camilla:

A whirlwind of emotions. In the midst of the excitement over the Italian edition of The Price of Silence, I’m reconnecting with friends who are pouring out their feelings, their fears, sometimes, not often enough, their joys. I listen and feel with them, for them and wish I could be with them more often.

I’m reading, speaking, breathing Italian. I walk the streets of Rome and go back in time, looking at the street corner where I bought my sister some lilies for her birthday, the restaurant where I gobbled down pizza after seeing Woody Allen’s Manhattan with friends, the palazzo that used to be the Foreign Ministry where my father worked. But Rome, that for years stood still, is changing. A lot of old reference points are gone. I don’t like it. I selfishly want the milestones of my memories to be there always, even as I realize that to let go of the past is a good thing.

I’ve just arrived in Florence. I’m staying at Erika’s house. She’s the Italian translator, who has become a close friend. She fed me a wonderful champagne and salmon risotto, lots of white wine. Tomorrow night the book presentation. I’m thrilled and scared at the same time. I don’t know what to expect. Thank God Erika is here to give me courage. She has a lot of friends. They will be coming for her and, if they are half as welcoming and generous as she is, it will be a memorable evening.

Italian Radio 3 Fahrenheit! June 25 4PM - 5:20

(Imaged aggregated by A. McGaha, using 2 Radiotre Fahrenheit logos, combined with created text image of interview details.)

The Italian Radio 3 program, FAHRENHEIT, will be interviewing author Camilla Trinchieri one week from today, Wednesday June 25, between 4 and 5:20 pm in Rome, Italy. (So far we haven't seen this information posted on the Website.)

For those who didn't know, Fahrenheit is considered, the best, most serious, most intellectual, most followed, most famous, most reliable and most trusted radio program about books in Italy. When the anchorman, Marino Sinibaldi, recommends a book, people listen!

We're hoping the recording, for those of you who can understand Italian, will be posted on the Fahrenheit site http://www.radio.rai.it/RADIO3/FAHRENHEIT/index.cfm.

Maybe we'll be able to hear the interview live from remote locations. The station has online listening; frequencies all over Italy; and both webcam and podcasts. We'll have to see what's available that day for Fahrenheit. Listen online. If in Italy, here are the station frequencies by city. Radio 3 Webcam.

Radiotre FAHRENHEIT interview with Camilla Trinchieri
Wednesday June 25, 4- 5:20 PM, Rome, Italy

D la Repubblica delle Donne

Review of Camilla Trinchieri's Il prezzo del silenzio in major Italian woman's magazine! From D la Repubblica delle Donne:

Segreti in terra straniera A volte l'ingresso di uno sconosciuto nella vita delle persone produce l'apertura di faglie, smottamenti, valanghe. Soprattutto se è inquieto e irresistibilmente fragile come An-ling, l'artista cinese che un giorno si presenta al corso per stranieri a New York in cui Emma insegna inglese. Il romanzo di Camilla Trinchieri si apre in medias res: An-ling è stata uccisa, Emma è indagata, i testimoni ricostruiscono per la giuria una storia che, come sempre accade, è più complessa e dilaniante di come appaia. Emma custodisce nel segreto della sua intimità l'incidente in cui ha ucciso una figlia di due anni, il marito Tom ancora gliene vuole e il figlio adolescente Josh non sa nulla di quel passato. An-ling, col suo carico di dolore, andrà a scardinare e a esporre i segreti di ognuno. An-ling, o dell'ambiguità. Un personaggio di pura fantasia?

"Sì e no. Anch'io, come lei, mi sono sentita "straniera" in America. Mi sono trasferita perché la mia vita personale stava andando alla deriva. Avevo lavorato con Fellini in La città delle donne e la sua cartomante mi aveva predetto che negli Usa avrei trovato la mia realizzazione. All'inizio, però, è stata durissima. Vendevo la pasta De Cecco a Little Italy, e per molto tempo mi sono sentita persa, senza radici, mi tenevo a galla senza intravedere una prospettiva. Ho conosciuto il mio attuale marito dopo una settimana dal mio arrivo, ma entrambi eravamo così spaventati dall'idea di rientrare in un rapporto amoroso che la cosa ci ha messo tre anni ad accadere".

An-ling agisce come una bomba nella vita apparentemente tranquilla di questa insegnante italiana... "È sempre un elemento esterno a far piazza pulita delle difese che ci si è attentamente costruiti. Emma e Tom hanno sepolto per anni la rabbia e la disperazione per la morte della loro bambina. An-ling risveglia in Emma l'amore materno che ha sempre avuto paura di dare al secondo figlio Josh. In Tom risveglia la rabbia sopita. In Josh la curiosità adolescenziale per la sessualità, tanto più che né lui né il padre riescono a decifrare la natura del rapporto tra Emma e An-ling". Nel finale sembra che l'organismo-famiglia digerisca il crimine... "Ma siamo sicuri che sia stato un crimine? Henry James parla di "fatal futility of fact". Sono d'accordo, la realtà è ben altro che oggettività. Ora tocca al lettore interpretarla".

Monica Capuani - Camilla Trinchieri, Il prezzo del silenzio, Marcos y Marcos, 16 euro "

From DLib Dmemory


D la Repubblica delle donne no 601, 34 D lib, p34
[http://periodici.repubblica.it/d/?num=601]

Reviews on the Marcos Y Marcos Website

Link to Marcos Y Marcos.

Note from Camilla on her Trip to Rome - A Homecoming

Camilla writes:

Tomorrow I leave for Rome where I lived and worked for seventeen years. I go every year to see family, friends, to reconnect with my Italian self.

This year is different. My book, The Price of Silence, has been translated into Italian. My heart started dancing when I found out and hasn’t stopped. I’m half Italian (on my father’s side) and half American and living in one country and then the other, I have always felt split in two. Now I’m whole thanks to this book, to my words being in both languages. I feel such joy. Yes, it’s wonderful to have the book sold to another country. The money is nice and it’s flattering. One can hope it will sell well, hope royalties will come in. That’s all true and I’m not denying that it’s part of my joy, but there’s so much more. Jeffrey, a friend of mine, put it in a nutshell. “It’s a homecoming,” he said.

I’m spending a week in Rome to catch up with everyone.

Then off to Florence on the 19^th for what the Italians call a "book presentation" during which a well-known author will introduce me and chat with me about the books.

My translator, Erika Bianchi, is from Florence and she’s promised me she’ll fill the bookshop, which is great. I’ve sat behind a desk in too many bookstores waiting and chatting with the staff. Afterwards we’re going to go off with her friends to a nearby bar for a glass of wine and some delicious munchies. After a few days in Florence I’m going back to Rome for more family and friends and one more presentation.

Then back to New York and my next story.

Erika Bianchi, the translator-she’s great, a redhead with the most enormous blue eyes I’ve ever seen. She’s a classics professor who teaches American students during their junior year abroad and in summer programs. I got a chance to meet her here in New York when she came to visit her best friend, who just happens to live a few blocks from me in Greenwich Village. Erika’s translation is lovely. Not once did I miss my English sentences. I felt as if I had written them, as if the story had been conceived in Italian. I still speak the language well (fluently when I left 28 years ago), but the only Italian school I went to was kindergarten with the nuns. My writing is filled with errors, with Americanisms. I’m lucky that the Italian publisher, Marcos y Marcos hired Erika.

But then the transformation of The Price of Silence into Il prezzo del silenzio has been filled with luck. I’m riding high right now. And even if the book sells only modestly I’ll still have the sensation that the two sides of me have finally come together. And I’ll still be happy. Maybe it doesn’t make much sense, but it’s given me an ecstatic feeling I’m not going to cross examine.

Ciao

Camilla Trinchieri Tops Marcos Y Marcos' Website

Marcos and Marcos has placed author Camilla Trinchieri to the center top of their main website.

Grazia Magazine to talk about Il prezzo del silenzio

Stay posted! Grazia magazine, one of the premier ladies magazines in Italy will have an article on Il prezzo del silenzio!

Here's the link to the Grazia blog.

A sample cover of the Italian GRAZIA magazine is below. Click for subscription info!

And in more stores!

Take a look at Il prezzo del silenzio in bookstores in Italy.

Il prezzo del silenzio is in stores in Italy

Italian Radio Interviews Author

Two Italian radio stations have interviewed Camilla about her book Il prezzo del silenzio, and about her upcoming visit to Italy. We're hoping the interviews will be recorded for online listening, stay posted. The daughter of an Italian diplomat, and having lived many years in Rome, Camilla is fluent in Italian; both interviews were in Italian.

La Feltrinelli bookstore in Rome Announces Event

Marcos Y Marcos Events Page

Marcos Y Marcos Website for Il prezzo del silenzio

Italian Publisher Marcos Y Marcos Lists Author Readings

On the events page for Italian publisher Marcos Y Marcos, the Camilla Trinchieri events in Florence and Rome are listed. In the photos on the page for previous author readings, you can see Camilla's book cover on the wall.

Invitation to June 19th Reading in Florence, Italy at 18:30

Invitation to Book Reading in Rome, Italy - June 25 6PM

The invitation is published.

Camilla Trinchieri will be reading from the Italian translation of The Price of Silence, Il Prezzo del silenzio in Rome, Italy on Wednesday, June 25, at 6pm.

Le Librerie Feltrinelli
via del Babuino 39/40
Rome, Italy
tel: 06 36001842

For a larger version, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Price of Silence Book Reviews

Here are links to some of the many book reviews on The Price of Silence.
You can also find highlights of many of the reviews on the Reviews page of the Camilla Trinchieri Website.

US Amazon.com

Genre Go Round Reviews, May 22, 2008

Gumshoe Review June 2008

Australia's Chaos.com

Canada's Amazon.ca

On Writing: Writing My Way Home

Camilla writes about how she began writing during a new phase in her life:


I left Rome in the summer of 1980, eager to make a new life for myself in America like so many Italians before me. New York City was the only possible choice for my new home. I had two wonderful, supportive friends from my college days at Barnard and those four years in the city--during which I played, sometimes studied and above all discovered my independence--were the best years of my life. Or so I remembered, which is all that counts.

to continue click here

Author to Launch Italian edition of Price of Silence in Italy

Author, Camilla Trinchieri, will be returning to her Italian roots to launch Il prezzo del silenzio, The Price of Silence, in its Italian translation.

Trinchieri will be reading at these book stores in Italy:

Libreria Edison in Piazza della Reppublica in Florence
Feltrinelli bookstore (The Barnes & Noble of Italy) in Rome

The Price of Silence (Paperback)

The Price of Silence (Paperback)
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Soho Press (June 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569474974
ISBN-13: 978-1569474976
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches

Reviews
Amazon.com; CamillaTrinchieri.com; Amazon.ca ;