The Letter Carrier

A Novel

By: Francesca Giannone, Elettra Pauletto - translator

Narrated by: Susan Vinciotti Bonito

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “[A] five-star read . . . If you love a family saga, sprinkled with historical fiction elements, and strong female protagonists, you need to read this book.”—theSkimm

Discover a little town in southern Italy that might be just like every town—with women and men, husband and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, all trying to navigate the world while staying true to their hearts.

What would happen if you finally met your soul mate—but they were married to someone else?

Salento, Italy, June 1934: A coach stops in the main square of Lizzanello, a tight-knit village where everyone knows each other. A couple gets off: The man, Carlo, a child of the South, is happy to be back home after a long time away; the woman, Anna—his wife—is a stranger from the North. Carlo’s brother is there to meet them, and he and everyone else can’t help but notice that Anna is as beautiful as a Greek statue.

But Anna is not like the other wives. She doesn’t gossip or attend church. She reads books no one else has ever heard of, exploring ideas that some find threatening. She even wears pants, just like a man, and thinks a woman should have rights, just like a man.

There aren’t many options for a woman with Anna’s sensibilities, so when she learns that the post office is hiring, she leaps at the opportunity. A female letter carrier? It is unthinkable! But Anna passes the postal exam and soon becomes the invisible thread connecting the town as she delivers letters between clandestine lovers, families waiting to hear news of loves ones away at war, and even helping those who can’t read.

Letters connect people, and they convey information and emotion. But for some in Lizzanello, letters are too little and too late.

The Letter Carrier taps into the universal feeling of connection—and what happens when that connection perhaps comes at the wrong time.

Critic reviews

“Francesca Giannone brings the sun-soaked vineyards of southern Italy to life in this transportive and poignant novel. The Letter Carrier, set in the difficult decades before and after WWII, is a lush diorama of a village in flux. At the beating heart of it all is Anna, the rule-breaking, bighearted letter carrier, a woman ahead of her time and drawn movingly from the author’s own great-grandmother’s story. An arresting read by an important rising author.”—Juliet Grames, internationally bestselling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia

“[S]weeping yet intimate debut novel . . . Giannone’s bittersweet narrative is a testament to the power of connections made and missed, and a sensitive portrait of a woman bravely writing her own story.”—Shelf Awareness

“[W]hen I gobbled up this WWII-era historical fiction over the weekend, it quickly became one of my few five-star reads of the year. . . . Everything about this slice-of-life story was heartwarming and impactful. If you love a family saga, sprinkled with historical fiction elements, and strong female protagonists, you need to read this book . . . I won’t stop talking about it until you pick it up for yourself.”—The Skimm

“[T]he story is full of characters you’ll feel you know well, plus their fiery affairs, destructive secrets, and love no less deep when it remains unacknowledged . . . The storytelling carries you easily, and the vineyard country of southern Italy makes for a lovely backdrop.”—Historical Novel Society

“Inspired by Giannone’s great-grandmother, this character-driven story uses multiple perspectives to explore gender roles, missed opportunities, and the importance of family connection.”—Booklist

“Francesca Giannone is a magnificent storyteller, a master of chiaroscuro, the light and dark, delivering the delicious joys of life along with all that falls into shadow. This novel is rich and personal.”—Adriana Trigiani, author of The View from Lake Como


International Praise for The Letter Carrier

“A great historical and coming-of-age novel, interwoven with maturity and wisdom, that speaks to each of us in a way that allows a fragment of life to contain and give back an entire universe.”—Corriere della Sera

“The Letter Carrier conceals a strong soul, that of marginal, saved stories.”—Nadia Terranova, author of Farewell, Ghosts and Zia Nina

“With an intense and engaging style, [Francesca Giannone] describes the psychology of the characters . . . and the novel becomes a small historical fresco.”—La Lettura

Characters are a bit lacks

I really did not enjoy the story. I was completely bored. I guess it's basic story is your actions affect many others for generations.

Lush but not unheard of drama

It felt like a story I’ve heard before. Soap opera of layered proportion. Not completely unlikeable but also not adored. Though I wonder if I read it rather than listening to it I could have gleamed more.

Elegant and Refreshing Love story

Unlike the explicitly defined Love stories of this era, I loved reading the subtle and elegant way of writing. Vividly illustrated of the country side and the period history was a reminiscent of the 1940's without violence! Thanks

OK story, zero character development, wrong narrator

I felt like somebody was telling me about an Italian family they knew, obligatorily checking off the events and conversations. But there was zero character development, and therefore I could not feel an emotional connection to any of the characters. Although I did like Anna and identified with her, especially when she told Lorenza that nobody was going to save her aside from herself. I’m the member of 2 book clubs; this was selected by Barnes & Noble. I found myself turning the audiobook back on to oblige finishing it. 2/3 of the way through I fell asleep while listening and I didn’t feel compelled to rewind what I had missed. I finished it for the sake of getting through it. I had just finished listening to, “Don’t Let Him In” by Lisa Jewell which was jaw-droppingly amazing. As soon as i finished the Letter Carrier I started listening to “A Little Life” which sucked me into the story right out of the gate. Within one hour, A Little Life had fully developed the four main characters in a significant way which the Letter Carrier failed to do in the entire 13 1/2 hours I listen to it. It could have been so much more, but we really did not hear much of the interior world or deep thought processes of any of what the characters were experiencing - it was so superficial. It left me feeling empty. Last, the narrator of this book, while she did do a fairly decent job with the Italian accents and language, was just the wrong narrator. She did not vary her voice enough to depict each of the characters compared to the guy who narrated 11-22-63 for example; THAT guy should’ve won an award! The tone of her voice was just strange relative to the characters, the time period, and the sentiment. There are so many other great books to read. This is not one of them.

Not sure why I didn't like this.

It could have been the narrator. To me, her voice didn't fit the story and her intonations were off. The story didn't captivate me at all. I kind of disliked all the characters.

It started out pretty good, Couldn't keep going.