The Chestnut House

Description

Two women, separated by two generations and continents, both trapped in their grief and unable to move forwards.

Upon inheriting Stazzana, a crumbling farmhouse in the wilderness of northern Tuscany, Emma flies out to Italy in the hopes that unravelling the truth of the past will heal her present. 

Local retired farmer Luciano befriends them and finds a new lease of life introducing them to the traditions and wildlife of the mountains, but he has his own secret to harbour, his own need for redemption. His sister, Giuliana, left Italy in 1945, and has spent her life running from the past. The past that Emma now seeks.

Can the truth of what happened at Stazzana set them both free?

Despite graduating in Philosophy and French, it is Italian that truly speaks to Anna Valencia. Her passion has seen the writer live in Rome, Milan, and Tuscany. She currently resides with her husband and three children on the family farm in the Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. Between teaching English to Italian students, she is currently writing her second novel. Her debut, The Chestnut House, is directly inspired by Anna's farm in the Tuscan village of Montaltissimo, and the local history generously shared by her neighbours there.