Bookn' with Friends

WPL's Bookn' with Friends book club will gather for a chat about Christine Simon's The Patron Saint of Second Chances at 6:30pm on Monday, June 24.

Selected to meet the 2024 Reading Challenge topic of "a book that allows you to travel vicariously," this quirky and atmospheric novel is set in a tiny Italian village.  

From the publisher:

Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem. Unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town's pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all its residents will be forced to disperse. So in a bid to boost tourism - and revenue - he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.

Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well, and soon everyone in town wants to be part of the fictional film - the village butcher will throw in some money if Speranza can find roles for his fifteen enormous sons, Speranza's wistfully adrift daughter reveals an unexpected interest in stage makeup, and his hapless assistant Smilzo volunteers a screenplay that's not so secretly based on his undying love for the film's leading lady. To his surprise - and considerable consternation, Speranza realizes that the only way to keep up the ruse is to make the movie for real.

As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!) Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn't show up? Or works, what if he does?