A Matter of Memory

When Luciano Benini leaves his house on the afternoon of the Feast of San Vito and does not return, neither the police nor the townspeople of Benvenuto can find him. After days of searching, his wife Natalia is convinced she knows what happened to him and announces to all of Benvenuto that the young and pretty Eva Amadeo has seduced Luciano into running away with her to America. Why else, then, would Eva leave town only days after Luciano’s disappearance? But Luciano is alive and well in Rome, living under a different name and unwilling to be found.

Fifteen years later, Eva returns to Benvenuto, and the visit so traumatizes Natalia that she takes to her bed. After Eva leaves town to return to her home in New York, Natalia, unable to recover, calls on her son Fabiano in Florence to put things right. Although not convinced of his mother’s accusations against Eva, Fabiano reluctantly travels to New York at his mother’s request to learn the truth. But Eva has her own version of what happened to Luciano that day of the feast, and her guilt has kept her from revealing it all these years.

Lisa Sita is a native and resident of Queens, New York, where she writes in various genres, teaches anthropology, and serves as an academic advisor to ESL students at the City University of New York. Her professional background includes work as a museum educator, curriculum writer, and author of educational books for young readers. Lisa holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Anthropology. Visit her website at lisasita.com.