Antonio Casella is an Australian novelist
born in Italy
Novels, published
Southfalia,
The Sensualist,
An Olive Branch for Sante
Uomo Infranto (in Italian)
Man Fragmenting
Men and Fathers (Unpublished)
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
What happens when an Australian girl travels to a Mediterranean village steeped in old-world tradition and discovers that she has a brother, Sante, living in that village? What’s their reaction when the two siblings discover that Sante was conceived through a rape by their common father? This is the difficult challenge I posed myself when I set out to write, 'An Olive Branch for Sante'. For me it became a fascinating journey into the complexities of human relationships.
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 contrasting landscapes are the backdrop to a journey that uncovers some unsettling secrets. Along the way the novel explores questions about love, forgiveness and redemption. At its core is a search for identity: personal, cultural and sexual.
Testimonials
“An Olive Branch for Sante " This novel is a delight to read.” Gaetano Rando, University of Wollongong.
“The more I think about this novel, the more it poses intellectually provocative possibilities.” Van Ikin, University of Western Australia.
"The novel is carefully built and beautifully written. It is the work of an experienced novelist." Guido Bulla, University La Sapienza, Rome.
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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 in 1991. This novel is currently out of print. It will be republished in 2013.
Recurring themes in my work
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 male sexual identity, is the main preoccupation of my third novel, Men and Fathers (to be published in 2014). 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 discovers some unsettling secrets.
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. Thirty years on, that message seems as relevant and urgent as ever.
This title is available from Amazon and soon on Kindle.
The splendid cover is an original work by my good friend and artist, Godfrey Blow.
(I think it's worth getting the book for the cover!)
Biography