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Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria Paperback – May 1, 2004

by Mark Rotella (Author)

38 customer reviews

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Calabria is the toe of the boot that is Italy -- a rugged peninsula where grapevines and fig and olive trees cling to the mountainsides during scorching summers. Calabria is also a seedbed of Italian-American culture; in North America, more people of Italian heritage trace their roots to Calabria than to almost any other region in Italy.

Mark Rotella's Stolen Figs -- named a Best Travel Book of 2003 by Condé Nast Traveler -- is a marvelous evocation of Calabria. A grandson of Calabrese immigrants, Rotella persuades his father to visit the region for the first time in thirty years; once there, he meets Giuseppe, a postcard photographer who becomes his guide. As they travel around the region, Giuseppe initiates Rotella -- and the reader -- into its secrets: how to make a soppressata and 'nduja, and, of course, how to steal a fig without committing a crime. Stolen Figs is a model travelogue -- at once charming and wise, and full of an earthy and unpretentious sense of life that now, as ever, characterizes Calabria and its people.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The jacket copy defines PW Forecasts editor Rotella's narrative as a "model travelogue," but it's much more. Even without a conventional conflict and plot, the author's intensity and personal commitment to a country and its inhabitants cast a spell. Anecdotes range from comedic-a long unseen relative scolds Rotella's father, "Thirty years and you don't write!"-to curiously romantic, as when the author's wedding ring slips off his finger while swimming and a "crazy aunt" exclaims, "That's good luck. Now you will have to return!" Descriptions of delicacies such as soppressata, capicola, fettucine and rag simmered with pepperoni incite a desire to be there just for the luscious, succulent meals, supporting Rotella's belief that you simply can't get a bad meal in Italy. Calabria is a particularly vivid character; readers learn how much the region has been through: spoiled by drought, destroyed by earthquakes and plundered by barons and kings. Rotella points out the effects of Mafia control in Bianca, a small, decrepit city, and the economic destruction it causes, without belaboring or stereotyping the Italian-Mafia connection. Playful moments are equally memorable, detailing petty fig heists from trees belonging to unknown farmers. Such likable protagonists as Rotella's loving father, his wife, and guide Giuseppe are woven unobtrusively through the tale of a culture that counts among its children Tony Bennett, Phil Rizzuto and Stanley Tucci. The book is a love letter, and Rotella reinforces that feeling when he writes, "I am a romantic. With each trip back to Calabria, I've felt myself becoming not only more Calabrese but more Italian." Readers, whether Italian or not, will find themselves captivated by so much meticulously drawn history and enchanting terrain.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Rotella introduces the world of contemporary Calabria, the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula, Rotella's ancestral home and that of most Italian Americans. This rugged land offers little agricultural bounty save those hardy Mediterranean natives: olives, figs, oranges, and grapes. Rotella and his father pay a visit to the family village, Gimigliano, perched on a crag. There they begin encounters with those relatives who chose not to flee to an easier life in America. So successful is the family reunion that Rotella vows to return biennially. Over a series of journeys, he witnesses growth in Calabria's tourist trade by those who love things Italian but who cannot afford trendy Umbria and Tuscany. Tales told by local Calabrese intertwine with Rotella's father's stories of growing up in Connecticut. Exhausting the chronicles of his ancestral town, Rotella sets out with the indefatigable Giuseppe to traverse the rest of Calabria. Stories flow easily from Rotella's pen, and his portrait of Calabrese life will no doubt encourage more to visit the south of Italy. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: North Point Press; Reprint edition (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0865476969
ISBN-13: 978-0865476967
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 38 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1369 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy > General
- #3991 in Books > Travel > Travel Writing

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M.C. Shopper

A Must Read for Anyone With a Love of Southern Italy

August 13, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a wonderful, visual, conversational book that I'd consider a must read for anyone with a southern Italian heritage, or an interest in the region. Rotella has the ability to make you feel as though you were accompanying him to Calabria on his adventures. I gave this book as a gift to a family member before her trip to Italy.

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WhatWhatWhat?

An Excellent Book about Calabria

January 5, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I am 3/4 Calabrese and most of my family hailed from the same tiny town of Gimigliano as the author's family, so my family and I have had a great time reading this book. I live in Niagara Falls, NY so I especially enjoyed the waitress in the little shop asking Mark Rotella if he was from Niagara...seems half of Gimigliano ended up in my hometown. This is the best sort of travel book, because it really makes you feel like you are right there with him traveling the byways of southern Italy. I suggest opening up google earth while reading this book so you can do street view and see the lay of the land that Rotella describes here.

I aslo highly recommend Rotella's book AMORE which tells the story of Italian-American pop music in a unique and highly entertaining way. Both books are very enjoyable and I recommend them highly.

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Frank Ruffa

Disappointed

October 1, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Having grown up in that area (a few miles as the crow flies), I'm familiar with most of the locales and customs the author describes. I was excited to finally buy this book (it was on my Wish List for a very long time). I admit, I stayed up late to read it! in retrospect, I realize that I was hooked because I wish to relive some of the good times I enjoyed in Calabria ('60s and '70s), but the author did a rather poor and disappointing job.
The narration is repetitive and tedious with far too many typos in the text. Aside from factual errors regarding historical events (mentioned in other comments), the author mispelled several of the local dialect expressions which pepper the text. If you're going to use local idiom, please have enough respect to spell it correctly! For example, it's "culu" not "cullu" (trans: ass). And there are many more ... as in "Giallorosso" instead of "Giallorossa" (wtf!). And, if the author returned in July with family, how could he have witnessed a procession of screaming soccer fans following a tie match of the Catanzaro team? There is no Serie (A, B, C) soccer in July!!!!!! I guess it must have been a [pathetic] artistic license. Was this meant to be a novel or a documentary? It succeeded as neither.
When writing about Capo Colonna, he focused on the lone standing greek column (which is impressive enough); but how could he not highlight the fact that just a few feet away there are ruins of a roman villa and a byzantine church!? Within the space of an acre you can 'witness' layers of culture and history spanning 2500+ years!! Talk about an opportunity to illustrate the concept of a land at the center of [ancient and medieval] universal greed and aggression!
I am disappointed. It's like eating a cannolo made without sugar!

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Michael Aparo

Ripe Figs are Sweet!

September 13, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I bought this book for my wife, who had heard about it from a nun (!). My wife's parents and older siblings were all born in Calabria and came to Hartford, CT just around the start of WW II.
The book is a delightful narration of a "paisan's" journeys back to his Calabrian roots. It evoked many pleasant memories of traditions and foods. I myself am going through the book a second time just to record the menus, with a view to re-creating some of my wife's favorite dishes.

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Sebastian L. Pandolfo

Going Home

September 4, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

To fully appreciate this book, it might help to have an understanding of the experience of a first- or second- generation hyphenated American. You grow up in Florida or Connecticut or the Bronx and, as an adult, you travel to the mother country, perhaps to the town where your parents were born. Even if you've never been there before, you may well have the good fortune to feel that you have come home and are surrounded by family, though you are with people you have just met for the first time. I had that experience some fifteen years ago and this book brought it all back to life for me.

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Joel S.

Five Stars

October 11, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Lovely book of personal experiences and reflections on Calabria. Taking it with me to Reggio, Calabria this ffall.

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M. Romano

Calabria Deserves Better

August 29, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I was somewhat disappointed in this book. I expected more exuberance, more heartfelt appreciation for a region of Italy that is truly wondrous and more than a little tricky to navigate. Norman Douglas' "Old Calabria" is far superior. The book lacked the intensity that I was looking for. I have to go back. I really do, with the help of the gods.

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lorgros2

All was excellent. Thank you

August 1, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've written 2 reviews already, and both are 5 star. All was excellent. Thank you.

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Most recent customer reviews

jcopp

Very entertaining read

This is a phenomenal read for anyone interested in Southern Italy. Mark captures the spirit and the feeling of the region with humor and wit.

Published 7 months ago

Roses

Travel log through Calabria

Beautifully written account of an American born man's visits to his ancestral homeland.

Published on June 26, 2015

Rae Gene Mungioli

Four Stars

interesting

Published on December 30, 2014

A Mdozia

Five Stars

nice reading

Published on December 27, 2014

M.Georgine Ciambra

Five Stars

WOULD HAVE PREFERRED A HARD COVER EDITION

Published on November 2, 2014

Linda Sposato

Novice

Although Mark, is what I consider a novice in writing, he put out his heart in this book. You can see the pride he has in his heritage and I, a fellow Calabrese, also have.Read more

Published on April 26, 2014

Vincenzo

I loved it!

The stories about southern Italy are excellent, I can almost see my grand parents living in the pages among the figs.

Published on August 16, 2013

Thomas Gigliotti

Stolen Figs not the interesting

Book did not hold my attention. Wanted to find out more about Calabria but I couldn't finish the book. Not enough story.

Published on April 12, 2013

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