Children of this Land

The moving and delightful story of the Valente family, although fiction, is grounded in first-hand knowledge of the way of life in Picinisco, southern Italy, in the post-war years. Poverty, separation and loss were common experiences that caused many to emigrate. Yet the hardships were more than balanced by a culture of family warmth and vitality, shared connection to the land and an intimate understanding of how to work it. A born storyteller, Serafina Crolla was inspired to write Children of This Land when visiting the cemetery in her native village of Picinisco. There, she saw a headstone for ‘An exemplary mother of nineteen children’. She was deeply struck by the eloquent simplicity and poignancy of this memorial inscription. As the daughter of a shepherd, Serafina well understood the joys and hardships that life would have entailed for this family. Through the vicissitudes of life, ties to this place hold strong for the Valentes. The nineteen children who make up the family tell their stories of love, marriage, trials and tribulations, loss and pain of immigration. Serafina’s own family emigrated to Scotland when she was a little girl but she returns to her homeland often, for, as she puts it: ‘A love for Picinisco as deep as the valleys and as pure as the snow-capped mountains is never forgotten.’ Living in Picinisco, Italy a er World War II brought enough societal challenges, never mind having to find the means to feed 19 other mouths. It is up to Mamma Matilda to make the needed sacrifices to ensure her family’s survival. With another baby on the way and the older siblings looking towards their future, tension begins to seep through the cracks. Upholding tradition, during a time of Italian poverty, death and lack of opportunities, is fading further away in the children’s minds. But Mamma Matilda will do what she must to protect what she loves the most – her family. A fictional story inspired by a real gravestone inscription ‘An Exemplary Mother of Nineteen Children’, this book tells the story of struggling to support a large family, but the harsh realities one must face when it comes to deciding to follow your footsteps or continue down the path of tradition. What truly is the importance of family? Does one’s dreams come before or after it? How would Mamma Matilda cope with an empty nest? In the end, it is family that has driven her all these years.