Books by Members

Tuscan Tales Translated and edited by Lori Hetherington

Tuscan Tales: the fantastic fables of Emma Perodi originates from a classic work of late 19th-century literature for children that has charmed Italians for over a century but has remained, until this translation, unknown to English-language readers. Set in an enchanted forest an hour’s drive east of Florence where mysticism runs riot and religion fuels the imagination, the tales transport modern readers to a time and place where scoundrels and saints, supernatural events, and magical objects appear in the Tuscan countryside. 

Quality print editions with line drawings can be purchased at Paperback Exchange in Florence (in-store or online); ebook or print-on-demand copies (link).

Intermezzo: Short Story collection by Lauren Mouat

The stories in this collection center on moments of change, of crossing the threshold, of going through the gate. Some characters experience the fragmentation of making a home in a foreign land, speaking new languages, of falling into or out of love, or of growing up. The parallel text itself is a reminder that there’s always another way to see the world and to tell a story.

I racconti presenti in questa raccolta sono incentrati su momenti di cambiamento, del valicare una soglia, passare oltre un cancello. Alcuni personaggi sperimentano la frammentazione che creare una casa in terra straniera comporta. Alcuni si innamorano o si disamorano. Altri crescono. Il testo a fronte ci ricorda che c’è sempre un altro modo per vedere il mondo e di raccontare una storia.

Available in Florence at the Paperback Exchange. Can be ordered from any Italian publisher or online here.

Messages from Florence by Melinda Gallo

Messages from Florence is part travelogue, part memoir, and part photography collection. Impromptu photographs and accompanying anecdotes illustrate how the city of Florence “whispered messages” to her about living a more present and open-hearted life. The book documents the author’s personal transformation while living as an American expat in Florence after her job in Paris ended. While meandering through the city’s gardens, running along the Arno, or watching a sunset, she captures inspired and unplanned moments with her iPhone.

You can purchase it at the Paperback Exchange in Florence, via Amazon US or Amazon Italy or directly in the US or the UK.

Hiding the Flame by Angela M Sims

Francesca Rosini has always lived in the glow of great art. In the workshop of her family’s friend, Sandro Botticelli, she finds a world of colour, light and possibility – a world denied to women. Her days are divided between the hospital wards, where she tends the sick, and the palazzo, where her family plans a marriage to secure their legacy. But Francesca’s heart will soon be lost – not to the man chosen for her, but to a woman whose presence ignites a passion as dangerous as it is forbidden. As the preacher Savonarola’s power tightens its grip on Florence, beauty itself comes under threat. Caught between duty and desire, faith and freedom, Francesca must decide: will she preserve the life she’d been given, or risk everything to protect the art, the love, and the truth she cannot live without? Rich with the scent of linseed oil and the sound of church bells, Hiding the Flame is a story of forbidden love, artistic longing, and the courage defy the darkness.

Hiding the Flame is Angela’s second book based in Renaissance Florence. Her first book, The Rose of Florence, is set twenty years before this story takes place. While both books stand alone, there are some of the same characters in both, linking the stories together. Available on Amazon. Angela M Sims (Author website)