The Castle that Only God Knows, by Delfino Cinelli

Delfino Cinelli, our Francesca’s grandfather, was a successful and respected writer in the 1920s and ’30s in Italy. His major novel Castiglion Che Dio Sol Sa is the story of Spannocchia as it was in the 1920s, recounting, in slightly fictionalized form, the experience of Delfino as the new owner of the estate, struggling to rebuild it after many years of neglect. The narrative of Castiglion’s protagonist, Gherardo, closely parallels Delfino’s own experience and gives an illuminating picture of a rural Tuscany that has only in recent decades undergone profound changes. 

In English translation, with Introduction by Randall Stratton.