A Tango in Tuscany is a book title that makes immediate expectations. What better escape to beauty, elegance and grace than these two words promise. Local writer James Ciullo set out on an ambitious project, setting his fictional international drama in a small Tuscan town. Tango was published by PublishAmerica of Baltimore; Ciullo will appear with it at Barnes & Noble In Pittsfield on Sept. 7 and at Papyri Books in North Adams in October.
The story is set in a Tuscan villa B& B operated by an American couple. Not exactly steeped in their adapted culture — the wife, Sylvia, barely understands Italian — they are intrigued by it nonetheless, and through an Argentinean guest, they find themselves embroiled in an a drama of international revenge.
The tango dancer in the story is an Argentinean doctor who parachutes into the villa in the early pages, as the guests are sitting down to their first evening meal together. He and Sylvia spend a great deal of time together, he perhaps for a comforting older woman companion, she to massage her unfulfilled existence: Her husband Tony doesn’t seem to think about much but the sunbathers at the pool. What the publisher calls an idyllic life upset by international drama seems more like one in need of some meaning not found after all in the purchase of an Italian villa.
But before long — in fact by the end of the one week stay — Claudio gives the couple a heart racing experience, a bit of Argentine history, and a deeper knowledge of the mountain after which they’ve named their villa.
This is Ciullo’s first published novel, though he’s written three and is hopeful about having them published as well. The other two — Oronoko and Garibaldi’s Gift — are also built around themes of war, suspense and “surprise twists.†The twists are tricky, says Ciullo, and wonders if he tries to do one too many with the main character, Claudio. But given Claudio’s crazy life, no twist would be too surprising: Life accelerates for Claudio when, as a little boy, he watches his mother being abducted, to become one of Argentina’s missing. Watching Claudio land at the villa many years later, his hosts have no idea that their charismatic tango dancer guest will give them such a ride into his history.
Fiction is the form of choice for Ciullo, he says, perhaps because he wrote non fiction for so many years as part of his human service administrator job, running state programs for the Department of Mental Health and Retardation. Now, he mixes his fiction writing with consulting work and with work at Tanglewood. Though fictional, the stories have some sort of message, he says. Oronoko is about idealism vs. reality, with idealism seen as misplaced and sometimes harmful. In Garibaldi’s Gift, also set in Italy, he places ordinary people in “unbelievable circumstances.â€
His main female character in Tango is dealing with questions about fulfillment; the story is set in a particular political history and touches on issues of human rights, he says.
Ciullo was a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela, the country where his Argentinean character gets his tip off about the whereabouts of the man responsible for his mother’s abduction. His parents are children of Italian immigrants, and his father fought for the U.S. Army in Italy during the Second World War.
Ciullo will read from and sign his book at 3 p.m. on Sept. 7 at Barnes & Noble.
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Winter Storm Warning Issued for Berkshires
Another snowstorm is expected to move through the region overnight on Friday, bringing 5 to 8 inches of snow. This is updated from Thursday's winter weather advisory.
The National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., has posted a winter storm warning for all of Berkshire County and parts of eastern New York State beginning Friday at 4 p.m. through Saturday at 1 p.m.
The region could see heavy to moderate snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour overnight, tapering off Saturday morning to flurries.
Drivers should exercise caution on Friday night and Saturday morning, as travel conditions may be hazardous.
Saturday night should be clear and calm, but warming temperatures means freezing rain Sunday night and rain through Monday with highs in the 40s. The forecast isn't much better through the week as temperatures dip back into the teens with New Year's Eve looking cloudy and frigid.
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