Firehead is ... a very Sicilian love story by one of Australia's most praised authors and now published into Vintage

Love, blood and pasta over three decades in Brisbane

She used to sell her kisses for caramels; her lips went for long licks of licorice and her touch for tangerines and tutti frutti ... She looked as Irish as rain out of a sunny blue day and as English as green meadows where wildflowers grow, and her name was Gabriella Maria Santuzza Zazo ...

When Gabriella moves in next door to 14-year-old Sam with her parents and her ageing grandfather - a man who carries the secrets of their Mediterranean island inside his slowly darkening mind - Sam knows that his life will never be the sameĀ again.

Set in Brisbane's Sicilian community over three decades, from 1975 to 1995, Firehead is an eerie story of generations and love, of police corruption and a city's changing terrain, and of searching for one place in the world you can finally say is home. This is sensuous, compelling storytelling with an aching mystery at its heart.

Author

Venero Armanno

Venero Armanno was born in Brisbane of Sicilian parents who arrived there in 1949. Armanno has published in English and speaks Italian and Sicilian. In 1980 he received a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) from the University of Queensland. From 1980-1990 he was employed in the computer industry as an Account Manager.

During those years he travelled extensively throughout Australia, France, Holland, Switzerland and Turkey. He is the author of five critically acclaimed adult novels and a short story collection.

These are The Lonely Hunter, Romeo of the Underworld, My Beautiful Friend, Strange Rain and Firehead. Following successful residencies and speaking tours in Spain, France and Germany, Strange Rain and Firehead have been published internationally and a feature film of Firehead is currently in production.

Venero lives in Brisbane where he is completing a PhD at Queensland University of Technology and reviews books and films in his spare time. Venero has published two previous children's books, The Ghost of Love Street and The Ghost of Deadman's Beach in Lothian's After Dark series. Both these titles were CBCA Notable Books. Nic and Naomi is his first picture book.

Country of Origin

Books:

Series:

ISBN
0091831326
Year of Publication

Add new comment

This is a book review site, with no relationship whatsoever with any of the authors mentioned here.

We do not provide a method for you to contact authors for any reason and comments of this nature are automatically deleted.

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.