Belmonte

A large German-Italian family saga spanning four generations.

When her grandmother Franca unexpectedly passes away, Simona, a third-generation Italian-German child of guest workers, inherits her ancestral home in the Italian Marche region. But why did she know nothing of its existence? The young landscape gardener from Allgäu sets off to distant Belmonte, a dreamy medieval village on a hill where time seems to have stood still. There, she discovers Franca's life confessions on cassette tapes. Piece by piece and story by story, Simona follows the traces of her ancestors to an abandoned monastery, a once-feudal estate, and its reclusive owner, until she ultimately uncovers a shocking truth.

In "Belmonte," Antonia Riepp powerfully and profoundly narrates the journey of a young woman searching for her roots. Riepp's moving novel about love, home, and identity spans four generations and takes listeners from Belmonte, a picturesque village in the Italian Marche, to the idyllic Allgäu.