The Immigrants by Moreno Giovannoni

A story of love, dreams, exile and tragedy, told with heart-breaking beauty

‘Although if they are asked before they die, they all say they came here for a better life, they do not always find a better life, do they?’

In the Victorian town of Mitref , tobacco is grown, an Italian cinema and cafe open, and people travel back and forth from Italy. A boy fishes, wanders the countryside and watches a community form, with its joys, scandals and shared understandings. Interspersed are the ‘grotesques’ – indelible and terrible events that sit alongside the better future they all seek.

In The Immigrants, Moreno Giovannoni depicts a family as they build a new life in a strange land. Through love and exile, industry and tragedy, their unspoken dreams and fears unfold in this astonishing and moving book.

Praise for The Fireflies of Autumn-

‘I can’t remember ever reading anything quite like it. It thrilled me, and made me laugh, and moved me very deeply.’ -Helen Garner

‘There is immense beauty in this book, and there is great sadness and there is genuine tenderness. I can’t recall when I was last thrilled by a book as I am by this one.’ -Christos Tsiolkas

‘I have never read a migrant tale so original, so breathtaking in scope, or so magical.’ -Alice Pung

About the Author: Moreno Giovannoni is the author of the critically acclaimed The Fireflies of Autumn and a freelance translator. His essay ‘The Percheron’ was selected for The Best Australian Essays in 2014. He was the inaugural winner of the Deborah Cass Prize for Writing in 2016.

01 Jul 2025
 

The Immigrants: Fabula Mirabilis, or A Wonderful Story by Moreno Giovannoni ISBN 9781760645267