Book Look Review "The Miracles of Santo Fico"

“The Miracles of Santo Fico”
by D. L. Smith
I was very excited when I checked my spam mail box today to learn that I have again won the lottery. It’s a miracle! I didn’t enter the lottery, but according to Nicon Company of Nigeria I am a $2 million dollar winner. I quote their very words as proof of my winning: “The service company mailing you as per your parcel that was brought to this company to be delivered to you by lottery groups, along the delivery process that brought a misunderstanding between you and the lottery claim agent and in regards of their request as per their insurance certificate cost and tax fee which happened to be the course of your parcel being pending for the past months/one year.” Huh? That is a sentence of incredible length and construction. I like to call this Scam Literature. If I ever decide to run a scam in a foreign country, I will be sure to have someone who actually speaks that language proofread my email invitations.

Despite the angelic title of this week’s book recommendation, the story revolves around a charming scam artist. I loved this book! The story takes place in the small Italian town of Santo Fico. After twenty years and the death of his estranged father, Leo Pizzola returns to his poor and dusty hometown. Leo’s childhood friend Guido, whom everyone calls “Topo”, is the only person happy to see him. Marta, the woman he once loved, refuses to even speak to him. Apparently Leo managed to make almost everyone mad at him when he suddenly departed on the day of his best friend’s wedding. Leo can’t wait to sell the family vineyard and return to his new home in Chicago. But a greater force is at work to keep Leo from leaving just yet. He has a miracle to perform.

When the elderly town priest loses his faith, Marta turns to Leo to manufacture a miracle to restore the priest’s belief and save his life. She uses her knowledge of a crime committed by Leo to encourage his cooperation. As Leo, Topo and Marta join forces to save the priest, others are drawn in and unexpected miracles do happen.

“The Miracles of Santo Fico” is one of those rare books you can give as a gift to people you like. It is charming, easy to read and unlike some Tuscan sun books, there is no offensive behavior - unless of course you are offended by loveable scam artists.