The Letter Carrier

The novel opens on August 13, 1961, in the small southern Italian town of Lizzanello, where news of Anna Allavena's death spreads quickly. At the vigil in her pomegranate and basil garden, her adult son Roberto stands by the coffin, which holds her mortar with two pairs of newborn socks and the wedding ring of her late husband, Carlo. Giovanna Calogiuri, an old friend, gives Roberto a postcard from 1936, revealing that she and a lover exchanged secret messages hidden beneath postage stamps, a method Anna invented. Roberto wonders whether his Uncle Antonio has read a sealed letter Anna left for him; the two had not spoken for nine years.

The story returns to June 1934, when Carlo Greco brings his wife Anna and their one-year-old son Roberto to Lizzanello after inheriting property from a deceased uncle. Carlo, a former customs officer who lived in the northern regions of Piedmont and Liguria, is thrilled to return south. Anna, who wears mourning black for a lost daughter named Claudia, is reluctant and disoriented by the heat, dialect, and unfamiliar landscape. Carlo's older brother Antonio meets them at the bus stop. Anna is struck by his resemblance to Carlo but notices something different in his eyes, intense and melancholic, and she blushes under his gaze.

A welcome lunch at Antonio and his wife Agata's house establishes early tensions. Agata is dismayed when Anna ignores local customs and declares she is not religious. Anna forms an immediate bond with Lorenza, Antonio and Agata's nine-year-old daughter, seeing in her a reflection of Claudia. She begins planting Ligurian basil in the pomegranate garden behind her new house, a refuge she calls her jardin secret, using the French of her childhood near the border.

Carlo reconnects with Carmela, the town seamstress and his former teenage sweetheart. Years earlier, he had left promising to return and marry her but instead met Anna and ended the relationship by letter. Carmela had been pregnant at the time. Her father, don Ciccio, an experienced winemaker, arranged a hasty marriage to the older Nicola Carlà to preserve the family's honor. Their son Daniele, born in December 1924, is Carlo's biological child, a fact Carlo does not yet know.

Carlo builds a vineyard under don Ciccio's supervision, while Anna chafes at the limitations of domestic life. When the town's letter carrier dies, Anna applies for the position, provoking fierce opposition from Carlo and Agata. Only Antonio supports her. Anna wins the job, and Carlo, resentful, begins a sexual affair with Carmela. As letter carrier, Anna befriends Giovanna, whom the town dismisses as "Crazy Giovanna," discovering instead a dignified woman who cannot read. Giovanna's letters come from don Giulio, a priest she once loved. Anna devises a system of hiding intimate messages beneath postage stamps and begins daily reading lessons with Giovanna using Pride and Prejudice.

Antonio's feelings for Anna intensify through their shared love of books. One afternoon on the rooftop of his oil mill, he kisses her. Anna flees in horror. Consumed by guilt, Antonio departs for Asmara, the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea, ostensibly to export olive oil. Anna later reads Luigi Pirandello's play Non si sa come, about a man who sleeps with his best friend's wife and flees seeking punishment, and understands the true reason for Antonio's departure.

Antonio's absence strains his family. Agata grows bitter and directs her frustration at Lorenza. Anna steps in as a surrogate mother. Carlo eventually reconciles with Anna over the vineyard, revealing he has named his first wine "Donna Anna" in her honor. When Agata sends a false telegram claiming Lorenza is gravely ill, Antonio returns. At Christmas 1938, he gives Anna Gone with the Wind, telling her that Scarlett O'Hara's resilience reminds him of her own.

The narrative leaps to the war's end in May 1945. Anna now delivers mail by bicycle, and Carlo's winery has survived by selling wine to American soldiers. Don Ciccio has placed Daniele at the vineyard, where he proves tireless and talented. Carlo, who has learned the truth of Daniele's paternity, develops an unspoken pride in the boy. Meanwhile, Lorenza has fallen in love with Giacomo, the fruit vendor's son, but Giacomo is killed in a 1943 bombing. Lorenza sinks into prolonged grief, and Daniele, who lost the same friend, shares her sorrow. Their bond deepens into a quiet romance.

Anna leads a campaign for women's suffrage, collecting signatures in the town square. On June 2, 1946, she casts her first vote. Carlo runs for mayor as a Christian Democracy candidate. Anna, a Communist sympathizer, secretly votes against him but shows public support. Carlo wins.

Carlo sends Daniele to New York to handle American wine sales, secretly intending to separate him from Lorenza, since the two are unknowingly first cousins. While away, Daniele nurtures a lifelong passion for fashion design, attending tailoring workshops. His failure to propose drives Lorenza to accept a proposal from Tommaso De Santis, the post office director, out of a desire for security and a wish to punish Daniele. Anna warns her niece that she is making a terrible mistake, but Lorenza proceeds. Carlo's health then deteriorates: A persistent cough worsens into lung cancer, and he dictates his will, leaving seventy percent of the winery to Roberto and thirty percent to Daniele.

On his final evening, Carlo urges Anna to build the Women's Home she has long envisioned, a shelter where women in crisis can find education and safety. They fall asleep holding hands; the following morning, Carlo is gone. Anna retreats into grief. On her birthday, she rides to Giovanna's abandoned farmhouse and envisions the Women's Home in its rooms. She renovates it with Antonio's help, installing a classroom, library, and dormitory. The first residents are Melina, a war widow, and Elvira, a pregnant young woman seeking shelter.

Lorenza and Daniele resume their affair, meeting at his design studio in Lecce while Anna watches Lorenza's young daughter Giada. During a heated argument, Carmela inadvertently reveals to Daniele that Carlo was his biological father. Daniele realizes Roberto is his half-brother and Lorenza his first cousin. Unable to continue the relationship and unwilling to reveal the truth, he tells Lorenza he no longer loves her and leaves for New York. Lorenza's mental health deteriorates. She begins cutting herself. Anna obtains Daniele's address and gives it to Lorenza, hoping communication will ease her suffering.

Instead, Lorenza disappears one night, leaving only a brief note. Antonio discovers that Anna provided the address and had been facilitating the affair by watching Giada. He erupts in fury, and Anna retaliates by attacking his lifelong dishonesty. Antonio slaps her, and each declares they will never forgive the other.

The epilogue returns to August 13, 1961. Antonio, elderly and ailing, watches Anna's funeral procession from his study window. Her coffin is followed by Giovanna, former colleagues, and many women he does not recognize: the beneficiaries of the Women's Home. Anna's letter confesses that she risked loving Antonio more than she ever loved Carlo, and the only way to prevent that betrayal was to maintain their hatred. She references Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Elective Affinities and its question about what happens to a couple when a third element enters. A gust of wind lifts Anna's postal cap from the coffin and drops it at Antonio's window. He trembles, his mind returning to the June afternoon in 1934 when the most beautiful woman he had ever seen stepped off a blue bus into the deserted square.