The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia

In 1960, American Francesca Loftfield works for a charity in Italy. She is sent to a remote Calabrian village where she is to create a nursery school. While she works to get a space ready, the seasonal rains cause flooding that washes away the post office and reveals a skeleton buried in the foundation of the building. An older woman thinks the body might be that of her long-missing son, Leo, and she asks Francesca to use her connections to find out what happened to her boy. As Francesca begins to ask questions, it becomes clear that several other men and boys have also gone missing. The men who run the village with rules of “honor” established centuries before do not appreciate Francesca’s meddling, and when she finally begins to unravel the town’s secrets, her life hangs in the balance, and she is forced to flee the village. Grames captures a time and place in which women have few rights and corruption is rife. Her main character is an outsider whose naivete unearths long-buried secrets. An author’s note, competently read by Grames, provides insight into the origins of the novel. Narrator Lisa Flanagan provides accurate voices for Francesca and her Calabrian neighbors.