Drawing out her mother's childhood memories of life in southern Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century, Mary Melfi takes an unconventional approach to autobiographical writing. Italy Revisited serves as a double memoir, told in dialogue between a mother and a daughter. The conversation takes the reader to a medieval town high up in the mountains where time is told by the shadow the sun casts, where wheat and olive oil are the currency of choice (barter is in use), and where marriage is as much about property as it is about love. As they re-create that vanished world, the pair finds greater understanding of the tumultuous relationships that sometimes exist between immigrant mothers and their children.

Mary Melfi was born in a small mountain town south of Rome. In 1957, at the age of six, she immigrated with her family to Montreal, Quebec where she attended local English schools. She received a B.A. in English Literature from Concordia University and a Masters of Library Science from McGill University. Since completing her studies in 1977 she has published over a dozen books of critically-acclaimed poetry and prose. Her first novel, Infertility Rites, was published by Guernica Editions in 1991; it was later translated into French and Italian. Doubleday Canada published her children's fantasy book: Ubu, the Witch Who Would be Rich. In 2009, the author's memoir, ITALY REVISITED: Conversations with My Mother, was published in Canada. In 2012 it was translated into Italian by Laura Ferri and published by Iannone Editions under the title, Ritorno in Italia, conversazioni con mia madre. Also a playwright, Mary Melfi's works for the theatre have been workshopped in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Her two full-length plays, both comedies, Foreplay and My Italian Wife were published by Guernica Editions in 2012. Noted for her black humour, wry wit and imaginative style, critics have suggested that this author manages "not only to make us laugh, but also think." She received the Giornata Internazionale Della Donna Award in 2010. In-depth reviews of her published works can be found in William Anselmi's book entitled: Mary Melfi, Essays on her Works (Guernica Editions, 2007). Mary Melfi presently lives in Montreal.

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