Francesca Marciano biography

Interview

Francesca Marciano discusses why she wrote Casa Rossa in English, instead of her first language, Italian; the historic aspects of the book - set in Italy from WWII up until the dark years of terrorism in the 70s; her plans for the future and much else.

Your first novel, Rules Of The Wild, was about Africa. You evoke places so vividly–what made you want to write about Italy this time?
After writing about Kenya -- a place where I spent several years of my adult life -- I felt the urge to go a little deeper, to plunge into some early memories, some closer feelings. Although Casa Rossa is a work of fiction, so much of the complex tapestry of my background as an Italian is woven into it.

There are, I think, certain images that follow us all of our lives; they are as powerful as if they're engraved into our DNA, and are responsible for shaping our lives.

In this novel I wanted, among other things, to conjure up these images of mine, and try to make them come to life on the page. They come from the landscape of Southern Italy–cacti; relentless cicada song among the olive trees; crumbling farmhouses and their thick walls, the sweet smell of ripe figs: these are the sounds, sights, and smells of the place I fell in love with as a child.

For me Southern Italy is a place with incredible power, and as I set out to write Casa Rossa, I thought it would serve well as background for the characters of a novel. I wanted the people who inhabit this novel to ...