Three Weeks in Italy: Rome, Palermo, Pisa, Florence

Camilla writes, at long last:

"It’s been a long time since I last wrote here and to those of you who check in I apologize. I’ve been too busy getting back into the groove of New York living and meeting a deadline. But now the mail and magazines are read, my jet lag is over, and the deadline is almost met. I got back from Italy twenty days ago with more photos, more wonderful dishes to try to recapture in my tiny kitchen, more memories to brightly color bleak moments. And wonderful news.

Rome to Palermo
It was a three week trip. First a few days in Rome to visit with family and friends, then off to Palermo for the book reading of the Italian version of The Price of Silence with my wonderfully exuberant and brilliant translator, Erika Bianchi. We basked in the sunlight, the beauty of the city, and the warmth of the bookstore owners and staff at Modus Vivendi. I didn’t want to leave.

Sicilian Pasta Norma
And the food! That pasta with eggplant and ricotta I mentioned earlier is a Sicilian specialty called Pasta Norma. Erika cooked it one night at her place. It was delicious. Now I want to give it a try in my tiny kitchen with American eggplant and ricotta. If the results are good I’ll pass along the recipe. Of course, you can probably find it on the FoodNetwork, but I have more fun doing it on my own. I love sharing the recipes. Each of my seven mysteries had an original recipe at the end. It’s my Facebook, my way of making friends.

Pisa to Florence
After Palermo Erika and I flew to Pisa and took a bus to Florence where I stayed for two weeks. I taught eleven hours of creative writing at The Institute at Palazzo Rucellai.

In my free time I wandered the city with Erika, window shopping, having delicious lunches and ice creams (my hips now abound in them), even cooking a few dinners at her place. No matter how hard I tried, I never won over Erika’s five-year-old son, Ulisse. He’d look at the plate of crabmeat lasagna or at the chicken breast cooked in butter, lemon and capers, wrinkle up his handsome face and declare “Disgusting!” But it wasn’t all bad. Erika just told me that on Easter Sunday he announced to his great grandmother that he liked coming home to an apartment filled with the aroma of whatever I was cooking. Maybe next time he’ll eat something."

The Best News Ever: Finding Alice has a Publisher in Italy

Camilla writes, while in Florence, Italy:

Claudia Tarolo, the publisher of MarcosyMarcos, the company that published The Price of Silence in Italian, came down from Milan.

We sat at the caffe’ in the bookstore Edison, with Piazza della Repubblica spread out below us and for five hours went over the almost complete manuscript of Finding Alice, the novel I have been working on and off since 1986, the novel of the heart, the novel that started me writing.

It’s a deal.

She wants to publish it.

Claudia will go over the final revisions, perhaps ask for some changes, and then we drop it in Erika’s capable lap to turn it into beautiful Italian.

The book will come out in Italy in November. Hurray!



Erika snapped me and Claudia just after Claudia gave me the good news. The photo is out of focus. It was an emotional moment for Erika too."

Monday May 4th at 6PM Camilla Trinchieri to Read in Manhattan

New York author, Camilla Trinchieri will be reading from her 2007 psychological thriller, The Price of Silence, in Manhattan next week. The reading is at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, on 25 W.43rd Street, 17th floor (between 5th and 6th Avenue) Manhattan on Monday, May 4, 2009, at 6PM.

John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
25 W.43rd Street, 17th floor (between 5th & 6th Avenues)
Manhattan, New York

Visitors Worldwide Find their Way to Camilla Trinchieri's Blog

Visitors from all over the world make their way to this little blog about New York author Camilla Trinchieri. On April 27th there were visitors from Beijing China; Pisa, Toscana; Milan, Lombardia; Singapore, and Bogota, Cundinamarca.

Reader Book Review from Amazon Canada

On March 30th 2009, Sheri S. published another book review on Amazon Canada:

Narrated from three different perspectives, "The Price of Silence" provides an insider's look into the life of Emma Perotti, who is on trial for the murder of her former student and friend, An-ling Huang. Through flashbacks, courtroom transcripts and emails, readers learn about the complicated relationships between Emma and her husband Tom, her son Josh and ultimately An-ling. There was something wrong with An-ling right from the start which Tom sensed but Emma refused to acknowledge. As Emma grew closer to An-ling, her connection to her husband and son weakened. The story centers around the dangerous consequences of obsession and jealousy, while showing just how far someone will go to hold onto what matters to them.

"The Price of Silence" blew me away. I was captivated right from the start and I literally did not want to put the book down. This book is a perfect combination of all the elements that make up a great psychological thriller. There is so much depth to each of the characters and as the book progresses, another layer of their character is exposed. Though it seems like all the facts are presented at the beginning of the book, nothing is at seems and there were twists and turns that I could not have predicted.

I was also amazed by how the author's writing style shifted between each character's narration. Camilla Trinchieri truly embodied Emma, Tom and Josh as if they really had completely separate identities. I found myself thinking about this story and murder trial as if it were real. Ironicaly, it was An-ling's character that was most real and alive to me, despite her being dead throughout the entire book. Her presence in the book was haunting as she cast such a powerful shadow over the lives of the entire Perotti family.

This impressive book is not to be missed!

Sheri S., Reviewer Rank 1,098 with 59 book reviews to date.