Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany — Paul Salsini

From a tiny isolated village to the high art of Florence, Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany completes the sweeping narrative of ''A Tuscan Trilogy.'' A boy just born in the first novel of the trilogy comes to Florence to study art, and, in this tumultuous decade of change, he is himself transformed as a devastating flood ruins not only works of art but also the lives of the poor and helpless.

In the first of the trilogy, The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany, terrified villagers confront seemingly insurmountable dangers while trapped in a farmhouse during the German occupation of 1944. In the second, Sparrow's Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany, set in 1955, a guilt-ridden partisan relentlessly pursues the collaborator of one of the worst massacres in Italy during World War II.

Martha Bergland, author of A Farm Under a Lake, calls Dino's Story a ''fascinating inside look at Florence through the eyes of Paul Salsini's warm and complex characters. I couldn't put it down.'' Lawrence Baldassaro, Professor Emeritus of Italian and Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found it ''an intriguing coming-of-age tale. Dino's Story is a seamless and conclusive sequel to the first two volumes of Paul Salsini's Tuscan trilogy. Once again, Salsini combines meticulous research, a keen eye for detail, and narrative dexterity.''