Orani: My Father's Village (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
This lovely book paints a picture of of a small village on the island of Sardinia in the author's childhood summers, a place where children play in the streets, hear the women gathering early on hot mornings to bake bread, celebrate a wedding for 3 days and see a dead body in someones home for a funeral. The author says in a note at the end that this place doesn't exist anymore, but has racing cars in the narrow streets and children inside with their electronic gadgets. But what a glorious ode this book is to those summers, with stunning visuals of the white stucco, red roofs, and cobbled streets, animals roaming, and the smells and sounds of community everywhere. I'm not an immigrant myself, but I think this picture-book memoir captures perfectly a child's experience visiting the Old World where her father grew up, and its smaller-scale, family-centric life. I think I teared up a little. Just love this quote from the Author's Note:"Orani was a complete world and just the right scale for a child. Everything happened there -- all the tragedies and joys -- but they happened in a contained place, among families and neighbors, where everyone knew and cared, so that as a child I could comprehend and feel that each part fit into life's whole. It was there that I saw where the things I ate came from -- the tree, the plant, the animal -- and how each food was made by the work of someone's hands. In Orani, I felt at the literal source of everything, and how thrilling that was!"
What do You think about Orani: My Father's Village (2011)?
Make sure you read the author's note. I gave it one more star after reading it.
—KIMIE
This would make a good mentor text for memoir.
—lucee
Neat book to learn about a foreign place.
—andyjones507
