The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon on April 12, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Humorous / General, Fiction / Literary
Pages: 304
Format: Audiobook
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The self-appointed mayor of a tiny Italian village is determined to save his hometown no matter the cost in this charming, hilarious, and heartwarming debut novel.
This was an absurdly, funny story. A great mix of characters and a charming Italian village, this one will be liked by fans of A Man Called Ove or Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
Signor Speranza is a proud vacuum repairman and the self appointed mayor of a little Italian village. It is discovered that the town’s pipes need to be repaired and the cost to do those repairs will be $70,000 euros. Since the town is so small (think 212 people) because they keep count, as one dies another might be born, the sign doesn’t need to be changed. Because of this it isn’t very prosperous and taxes aren’t paid by the few businesses so no one is able to help pay the high repair fee. It’s too bad that commissioner noticed the last fix…the Hubba Bubba Gum one…that didn’t quite fix the pipe issue!
Speranza decides that a harmless rumor of a famous movie star coming to town to film his next project might not be a bad idea. He wasn’t aware of the power of social media in movie star rumors. The town starts crawling with people. Someone sees a cardboard cutout in an upstairs window at the Speranza’s hotel and next thing you know, there are self appointed body guards guarding the hotel.
Eventually, the whole town is involved in this movie and Speranza isn’t sure he can make it happen without someone finding out. Even the town priest is praying for people to get parts in the movie and helping out!
The further along I got, the more I enjoyed this one. I liked how everyone got involved somehow. The characters were enjoyable and I wanted to visit this town just to get a laugh at the shenanigans they all got up to. This was a funny story about how one lie turned into more just to raise the money to fix the pipes, and it just spiraled out of control until it all broke loose. I loved the hopeful feeling in the face of adversity. This was absurdly funny and not too over the top, but just the right amount! A great light hearted read.