The Letter Carrier

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - "[A] five-star read . . . If you love a family saga, sprinkled with historical fiction elements, and strong female protagonists, you need to read this book."--theSkimm

Discover a little town in southern Italy that might be just like every town--with women and men, husband and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, all trying to navigate the world while staying true to their hearts.

What would happen if you finally met your soul mate--but they were married to someone else?

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.

Author: Francesca Giannone
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 07/01/2025
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.31lbs
Size: 9.44h x 6.39w x 1.43d
ISBN: 9780593800898


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/01/2025 pg. 9
Booklist 06/06/2025
Shelf Awareness 07/19/2025

About the Author
Francesca Giannone has a degree in communication science and studied in Rome at the CSC, the oldest European film school. She has published various short stories in literary magazines, both in print and online. Giannone currently lives in Milan, but her heart is still in her native Lizzanello, a seaside town in the Salento region. She hopes to live there again one day.