Thank you GetRedPrBooks #partner, for the advanced copy of Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks in exchange for this feature.
Today, I’m happy to be featuring this book, which published yesterday. Please see what others have said about the book and read an interview that was done with the author.
Publisher: Radius Book Group
Published: August 16, 2022
Summary:
Cobblestones, Conversations and Corks is a passionate and deeply moving story about a father-son relationship; a culture rooted in family, food and wine; and an ancestral small town in Central Italy that was left behind after World War II.
On November 11, 1943, the Germans invaded Cansano, forcing its two thousand inhabitants to make a tough decision—fight and be killed or sent to a POW camp, stay behind as servants to the Germans, or move into the unforgiving mountains of Abruzzo while the Germans used their village as a home base. Giovanni Ruscitti’s family chose the latter and spent the next few months living in horrendous winter conditions in the rugged mountains. When the war ended, they returned to a village so ravaged by the Germans that, today, the town has less than two hundred citizens and remains in a dilapidated state.
In this memoir, Ruscitti visits Cansano for the first time with his family, including parents Emiliano and Maria. As he walks Cansano’s cobblestones, his father’s stories and life are illuminated by the town piazza, the steep valley, and the surrounding mountains. He relives the tales of his parents’ struggles during World War II, their extreme post-war misery and poverty, their budding romance after, and their decision to immigrate to the US in search of the American Dream.
Ruscitti’s adventure is not just an exploration of his homeland but reveals what family, culture, wisdom, and love really means. And what our heritage really tells us about who we are.
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Praise for Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks:
“Giovanni Ruscitti’s father Emilio urged his son to ‘tell our story.’ This remarkable memoir fulfills not only that promise but describes the hopes and dreams of immigrants who brought to this country their traditions, their love of family, and a unity that survived the melting pot of the American experience. This first-generation Italian-American author has created a beautiful, intimate, and touching portrait of not only a father’s love but a family’s commitment to each other and what we all hope to know—where we came from and who we are. It is a story that preaches the art of living life in full, with joy and compassion.”
—Dan Luzadder, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and journalist
“This touching and inspirational book is a must-read for all walks of life. The United States was built from immigrant families with these shared experiences.”
—Bobby Stuckey, James Beard Award winner, and author of Friuli Food and Wine: Frasca Cooking from Northern Italy’s Mountains, Vineyards, and Seaside
“Giovanni Ruscitti has written a wonderful book of special relevance for all North and South Americans whose ancestors have migrated from Asia, Europe, and Africa. His journey to the land of his forefathers is so meaningful not only because of the discovery of what connects us ‘Americanos’ to the rest of the world but also the journey within. A trip in which we all feel recognized. Bravo maestro!”
—Hernando de Soto, finalist for Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and author of Mystery of Capital
“After reading Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks, I was filled with immense pride. Giovanni Ruscitti’s book is an eloquent and poetic tribute to his father and his family. It’s a work of art that made me laugh and cry.”
—Vic Lombardi, thirty-three-time Emmy-winning sportscaster
“I’m in the middle of the NFL playoffs and couldn’t put the book down. I had to finish it. Readers will love Ruscitti’s book!”
—Mike Shanahan, two-time Super Bowl champion head coach
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About the author:
Giovanni Ruscitti is a first generation Italian-American who grew up in Frederick, Colorado, a small coal mining town that his parents and grandparents immigrated to in the 1950s and early 1960s. A nationally recognized attorney, arbitrator, and mediator, Giovanni is the Managing Partner of national law firm Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti, LLP. Giovanni currently lives outside Boulder, CO.
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An inteview with Giovanni Ruscitti
What were some of the most surprising revelations you discovered about yourself and your family throughout this journey?
Writing this book was one of the most inspirational and spiritual experiences of my life. I started writing it on September 6, 2020, in the middle of the COVID-10 pandemic, America’s awakening to social injustices and the resulting Black Lives Matter movement, and political unrest and division. It pained me to see the growing and pervasive judgment and discrimination against immigrants and minorities. I remembered stories my father told me of the discrimination he endured, and I could not imagine how much worse it had become in the cancel culture of 2020 and 2021. As the managing partner of my law firm, I also felt a deep amount of responsibility for our employees and clients, and I wanted to help protect them during this unprecedented time. And I was working harder than ever before, as I was in the middle of my busiest and most successful year yet as a lawyer and arbitrator. I was also providing daily crisis management advice to our clients during the pandemic, which was extremely rewarding. But after losing my sister, father, and uncle in 2019, the events of 2020 helped me realize that I needed to focus on something that I was missing. I needed to fulfill my promise to my father to tell his story – a promise I made a few weeks before he passed. What happened next was unexpected. I had never written a book and didn’t know how to start. I had no outline. I had a collection of stories, conversations, and memories. I didn’t know where the story would take me or, much less, how I would tell it. As it turns out, the writing process was profoundly spiritual and one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I told my father’s story and discovered my own. I also finally “heard” and appreciated the stories and lessons my father taught me his whole life. This is a story for the times and one that I think everyone will connect with.
How did your identity as first-generation member of Generation X shape your identity? How did you feel different from other friends growing up?
While other children in my hometown in Colorado were playing, developing friendships, riding bikes, and learning American sports from their fathers, I was always with the old, Italian immigrant men from Cansano learning how to butcher a goat, make wine and dried meats, and work with wood. By the time I was a young teenager, I almost resented this way of growing up and wished I could just be “normal.” I had all but forgotten my first language of Italian, vowing never to speak it again after having to attend summer school between 1st and 2nd grade to avoid being held back. And, I had zero desire to travel to Italy. But as I grew older – especially after my first trip to Italy in 2013 – I discovered that I was wrong. I was actually the lucky and blessed one, and those men, including my father, grandfather, uncles and great uncles, gave me a strong work ethic and desire to succeed. As a child, they deeply engrained in me who we are (and are not) and that impression resurfaced through visiting the cobblestone pathways and abandoned homes of Cansano that were once filled with the daily sounds of my ancestors.
Sadly, war is raging again in Europe. What are your thoughts on the implications of this war, and its parallels to the past?
War is the biggest waste of resources known to man and the implications are far reaching and unknown in the moment. As I wrote chapter 13 of the book, a family’s present condition, future, and history can change in an instant, and sometimes the impact is not known for years to come. For my family, that instant was on November 11, 1943. Italy’s declaration of war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940, put in motion a series of events that culminated with a horrific, unexpected Nazi occupation of many small towns in Abruzzo, Italy, on November 11 that no one was prepared for or expected. That occupation changed my family’s condition from a manageable level of poverty and scarcity to famine, hopelessness, despair, loss, and suffering. This led to mass immigration, prejudice and judgment, and additional poverty. The people of Ukraine will unfortunately go through the same events and the damage will run deep and will be forgotten when the next news event happens. My heart breaks for them. My family’s suffering ended, and I can only hope for the same for them. But it will take decades to recover.
What advice would you offer someone considering this kind of exploration of their family roots?
First, enjoy and appreciate the older members of your family now, while they are healthy and living. Second, don’t set any expectations or timelines. Let it come to you organically. Since I did not set out to write this kind of book – it started as a tribute to my father – I had no idea where this path would take me. But it took me on a journey of discovery (of myself, culture, and my tiny ancestral hometown in central Italy that time forgot), forgiveness, gratitude and understanding. Most importantly, and as my father often preached, “just do it!” Don’t let the idea or process be too big. Take it one sentence at a time and let it come to you. It will.
Talk about what food and family has meant in your life. What family recipes do you like to cook with your wife and children?
My love and passion for food and wine started in my Grandfather Panfilo’s wine cellar. Each year, my father and grandfather made homemade wine, prosciutto, dried sausages, and cheeses. The smells of the Italian delicacies combined for an aroma of wet stone, dark red fruit, salt and pepper, damp and wet earth, old corks, nuts, cobwebs, old wood, and musk that were intoxicating, and the conversation between my father and grandfather was an education in culture.
Since my parents were poor in Italy and when they first arrived in the US, my early meals were basic peasant foods with simple, pure ingredients similar to the dishes of the rugged Abruzzo region. Polenta with olive oil and cheese, grilled lamb, simple pasta dishes with a light tomato sauce with one or two ingredients, anchovy paste (a double layered pizza with anchovy and red pepper between the two crusts, drizzled with olive oil and garlic), roasted veggies and potatoes, and minestrone soups were and still are my favorite dishes, as is thinly sliced prosciutto and mortadello with crusty bread. My favorite thing to do now is cook with my wife Aggie while enjoying a glass of wine and having friends over for music and conversation.
