Short Fiction
Antonio Casella
Extract from the novel: An Olive Branch for Sante Brief synopsis Young Australian journalist Sara-Jane Giffen goes to Sicily and meets Sante, a brother she did not know she had. So begins the story of two young people on a journey to uncover a shocking secret and a past that extends over two fascinating landscapes half a world apart. Set in Australia and Sicily, this novel explores questions about identity, love and redemption. * In this extract set in Sicily, Don Alfio (who was to become Sante’s stepfather) looks back to the events 18 years ago when Sara La Rocca arrived from Australia and got a job looking after Alfio’s terminally ill mother. Sara came into his life at a time when his mother’s chronic illness had taken a turn for the worse. Twenty-one year-old Sara La Rocca was hired to look after her. Don Alfio, then a strapping thirty-six year-old with a fondness for flamboyant women, hardly noticed the dark, waif-looking girl with intense black eyes. Just days after her arrival, his mother, a devout woman, called Alfio into her room. ‘I just want to tell you this young woman is pregnant. Now, I don’t want you to send her away, I am growing fond of her. And another thing, you will not take advantage of her, unless, that is, you have honourable intentions in her regard.’ Alfio was crestfallen. His mother hardly ever spoke to him about such matters, since he had chosen to live what she called a dissolute life. She understood his weakness. Her long-departed husband had been a womaniser, so she could hardly expect anything else from her son. Alfio accepted his life was flighty, but what could he do?
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