What would happen if you finally met your soul mate—but they were married to someone else?
Phoenix Books is thrilled to partner with the Vermont Italian Cultural Association to host Elettra Pauletto, translator of The Letter Carrier by Francesca Giannone. Join us to get a look inside this bestselling Italian phenomenon on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 7PM.
Elettra Pauletto translates from Italian and French into English. Her writing and translations have appeared in Harper’s, Guernica, and Quartz, while her book translations have spanned a range of subjects, including music, art, and narrative nonfiction. She earned her MFA in creative writing and translation from Columbia University and now divides her time between Italy and western Massachusetts.
About the book:
Salento, Italy, June 1934: A coach stops in the main square of Lizzanello, a tight-knit village where everyone knows each other. A couple gets off: The man, Carlo, a child of the South, is happy to be back home after a long time away; the woman, Anna—his wife—is a stranger from the North. Carlo’s brother is there to meet them, and he and everyone else can’t help but notice that Anna is as beautiful as a Greek statue.
But Anna is not like the other wives. She doesn’t gossip or attend church. She reads books no one else has ever heard of, exploring ideas that some find threatening. She even wears pants, just like a man, and thinks a woman should have rights, just like a man.
There aren’t many options for a woman with Anna’s sensibilities, so when she learns that the post office is hiring, she leaps at the opportunity. A female letter carrier? It is unthinkable! But Anna passes the postal exam and soon becomes the invisible thread connecting the town as she delivers letters between clandestine lovers, families waiting to hear news of loves ones away at war, and even helping those who can’t read.
Letters connect people, and they convey information and emotion. But for some in Lizzanello, letters are too little and too late.
The Letter Carrier taps into the universal feeling of connection—and what happens when that connection perhaps comes at the wrong time.
DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 7PM
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