Hear the Echo: Two Strong Welsh-italian Women... Separated by a Lifetime, Linked Forever

In the 1930s, Chiara emigrates from Italy to forge a new and better life in Wales. She works in an Italian café in a close-knit mining town in the Valleys, encountering religious bigotry, xenophobia, and hardship as she and her Italian boss battle to make a success of their new life. But at the heart of their endeavour is a love triangle which threatens to destroy everything they have. Meanwhile present-day Welsh-Italian Frankie struggles to find the money and hope to hold her family together in the same Valleys community. With her husband letting her down at every turn, she faces tough decisions about exactly how far she’s prepared to go to keep the wolf from the door, and whether what she has is actually worth fighting for. Though they’re living in very diff erent time periods and situations, the two women’s lives reveal unexpected connections and commonalities, not least of which is their strength and determination to face down whatever life throws at them and carve out something better for themselves and those they love.

About the Author :
Rob Gittins is an award-winning screenwriter who has written for most of the UK’s top-rated television drama series of the past twenty years – including EastEnders, The Bill, Heartbeat and Casualty. In 2015, in recognition of his work as the longest-serving writer in the history of the show, he received an Outstanding Achievement Award for EastEnders.

Review :
In the 1930s, Chiara decides to emigrate from Italy to forge a new and better life in Wales. She works in an Italian café in a close-knit mining town in the Valleys, encountering religious bigotry, xenophobia, and hardship as she and her boss battle to make a success of their new life. But at the heart of their endeavour is a love triangle which threatens to destroy everything they have. Meanwhile present-day Welsh-Italian Frankie struggles to find the money and hope to hold her family together in the same Valleys community. With her husband letting her down at every turn, she faces tough decisions about exactly how far she’s prepared to go to keep the wolf from the door, and whether what she has is actually worth fighting for. Though they’re living in very different time periods and situations, the two women’s diaries reveal unexpected commonalities, not least of which is their strength and determination to face down whatever life throws at them and carve out something better for themselves and those they love. Hear the Echo is in a very different style from Rob Gittins’ police novels with all their visceral horror. It explores the experiences of the Italian-Welsh community over some eighty years through the eyes of two women, recounting their lives and the stories of those around them. We learn of the early ‘economic migrants’ who left Bardi in northern Italy after the First World War and settled in Britain, establishing successful businesses and providing a life-line for younger relatives. The central character from this era is Chiara, a young teenage girl sent from the impoverished hill-town to join an established restaurant in London. When her sponsor/employer, Enrico, finds he has been replaced in his absence, he sets up a café in a busy mining town in south Wales, taking Chiara with him. It is through Chiara’s journal that we follow their progress. The journal is aimed at a reader far in the future but meant to be kept from her companions. The other narrator is Frankie (Francesca), born in the same community in the present day, when the Valleys town is struggling with poverty and unemployment. Frankie is on the verge of joining her friends in prostitution just to keep the wolf, and the money-lender, from the door. Her only support is ‘Uncle Tony’, the present owner of the original café, her occasional employer and a life-line to her Italian heritage. Her desperation results in her recording a journal, to better understand her options – and actions. She latches onto a slightly mysterious former employee of the café (Chiara) to ‘talk to’ through her journal. With the help of Grace, a warm and lively Welsh girl who works with Chiara and teaches her English, Enrico and Chiara become an integral and valued part of the local community. Even when war with Italy defines them as the enemy and Enrico is taken away, Chiara, Grace and Enrico’s younger brother keep things going, but the blunders of officialdom and the shortages of war are not their only problems. It is conflict from within which proves most challenging. Frankie, saddled with an increasingly hopeless and useless husband, struggles to find a better future for her family. Her path takes her back towards Chiara’s roots, as the ‘imaginary friend’ she has been talking to somehow gives her an answer. The two intercut stories are both absorbing and sometimes heart-rending. They are both full of lively, well-rounded characters. The chosen structure of journal-as-narrative works well in Frankie’s case: her voice rings true as her narrative covers only a short period, serving to help her understand her life at a time of crisis and, in recording her thoughts, she chooses someone outside to ‘talk to’. Chiara’s voice is a little less convincing: in her journal, she is writing an account which moves from her Italian childhood to Wales, as she learns the language and matures over many years, yet it is all in the same tone and style of English, and the notion of her writing to an unknown, future person is less plausible. That aside, Chiara’s account tells an exciting and moving story of an immigrant’s experience and a clash of cultural expectations. It deals with the tragic events involving the interned Italians – an often forgotten chapter in the war. All these have echoes in current debates, although they involve a group who are now completely accepted as part of British life. This aspect of the novel is never over-emphasised but makes it thought-provoking beyond the confines of the Welsh-Italian community it depicts.