Antonio Casella is an Australian novelist
born in Italy
Novels
Southfalia
The Sensualist (re-published 2020 as Man Fragmenting)
Uomo Infranto (Italian Translation of Man Fragmenting)
An Olive Branch for Sante
Men and Fathers.
Plays
The Ghost of Rino Tassone,
To Catch a Bride.
Stories
Tell’m I’m Dead,
Boatphobia,
Lucifer’s Revenge,
A Misfit in Heaven,
The Flowering Broombush,
San Rocco Comes to Visit,
The Good Priest.
The Story
Sara-Jane, an Australian journalist, goes to Sicily and discovers that she has a brother, Sante, living in a hilltop town. Their encounter marks the beginning of the search into the violent, dark world that led to Sante's conception back in Australia.
On a personal level the novel traces a path of reconciliation between the siblings and their estranged father.
Set in Australia and Sicily, these two fascinating landscapes are the backdrops to a journey that uncovers some unsettling secrets.
The novel explores questions about love, forgiveness and redemption. At its core is a search for identity: personal, cultural and sexual.
Available from Amazon, the Bookdepository and on kindle.
Testimonials
“An Olive Branch for Sante " This novel is a delight to read.” Gaetano Rando, University of Wollongong.
"The novel is carefully built and beautifully written. It is the work of an experienced novelist." Guido Bulla, University La Sapienza, Rome.
------------------------------
Critical praise for Casella’s work.
“Casella’s intention is to chart and illuminate undiscovered, difficult country…The characters are entirely, sometimes shockingly believable, and even if they unlikeable, there is a point of understanding and sympathy to which we are drawn.” Helen Elliott, The Age, Melbourne.
“Dream and ritual intersect with the real man, define the purpose of things.” Walter Tonetto, The West Australian.
“A beautifully crafted novel.” Dianne Johnson, The Sydney Morning Herald.
(“Questa fusione di presente e passato, di nuovo e antico, di vicino e lontano, e’ la nota piu’ caratteristica della scrittura di Antonio Casella.”)
“This fusion of present and past, of new and old, of proximity and distance is a most important quality of Antonio Casella’s writing.”
Stefania Greco, in “ Terra e identita’ Nella Narrativa Contemporanea Italo-Australiana dell’Emigrazione.”. University of Bologna.
Cover of the The Sensualist, first published by Hodder & Stoughton. It was republished in 2020 with the title, Man Fragmenting.
Recurring themes
I wrote my first novel, Southfalia, when I was still at the University of Western Australia. Like so many students at the time I was outraged by the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, a pivotal event in the history of Australia. Beneath the satire and the humour of this work, lies a sombre message. The epilogue depicts a landscape rendered desolate by human exploitation and greed. That message seems as relevant and urgent as ever.
If Southfalia was driven by ideology, nostalgia drives my second novel, The Sensualist. In this work middle-aged Nick Amedeo and his wife, Joyce, both in the midst of an existential crisis, take a personal journey into their individual past. As a pig roasts away on a spit, under a hot Australian sun, Nick journies back to the Sicily of his beloved Nonno (Grandfather) and Joyce recalls some disturbing events that occurred on a cattle station in the Kimberly region of Western Australia, where she was born.
Identity, particularly gender identity, is the main preoccupation of my third novel, Men and Fathers. In this novel the main character, Paul Jacobs, goes looking for his father and finds him performing in drag at a gay function.
Identity too features prominently in the fourth novel, An Olive Branch for Sante, in which Sara-Jane, an Australian journalist, travels to Sicily and discovers that she has a brother, 18 year-old Sante, living in the hill-top town of San Sisto. Set in Australia and Sicily, these two fascinating landscapes are the backdrop to a journey that uncovers some unsettling secrets.
This title is available from Amazon and on Kindle.
The cover is an original work by artist, Godfrey Blow.