Adriana Trigiani, THE VIEW FROM LAKE COMO: A Novel

[1:26]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zippymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram at zibby owens. Today is number nine on the list of the number 10 most downloaded totally booked episodes of 2025. Go back to yesterday to hear number 10, and now we're up to number nine, and we'll be doing this for the next two weeks. Enjoy. Adriana Cicciani is back on the podcast to talk about the view from Lake Como, a novel. Adriana Cagiani is the New York Times bestselling author of 21 books of fiction and nonfiction. Her work has been published in 38 languages around the world. An award winning playwright, television writer, producer, and filmmaker, Ciggiani wrote and directed the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, adapted her novel, Very Valentine, for television, and directed the documentary Queens of the Big Time, among others. In 2023, president Sergio Mattarella of Italy awarded Cigiani the Caveldieri del Ordine della Stella D'Italia. The Library of Virginia bestowed their highest honor, the patron of letters degree, to Cigiani in 2024. She received the 2025 Ellis Island Medal of Honor for her significant contributions to literature, culture, and community. Trigiani grew up in Appalachia in the mountains of Virginia, where she cofounded the Origin Project, a year round in school writing program that has served over 25,000 students since its inception in 2014. Trigiani is proud to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family. Welcome back, Adriana. So excited to have you on Totally Booked with Civvie to talk about the view from Lake Como. Congrats. Thank you so much. I am thrilled and honored to be here. You know I adore you. Aw. I adore you too. Thank you. Okay. At first, I thought, oh, great. I'm going to Lake Como. And then I was like, what? Lake Como, New Jersey? What the heck?

[3:55]Adriana Trigiani: Okay. So your book starts in New Jersey. Both. I know. No. Listen. We can't can't mislead our our our listeners. I know. You get both. But, you know, at different stages of your life, you do different things. And people were getting married in New Jersey for I had cousins getting married down there and different and we found ourselves in New Jersey a lot, I just started nosing around. And I found this town Lake Como, and I thought this was hilarious. This is like, is your sister city Lake Como, Italy? Because my mother's people are Lombardian, and so we're from that area. So then I started nosing around and found out that the town changed its name. It used to be South Belmar. This made this made it more hilarious to me because the property values were plummeting and they wanted to resuscitate this town. So they took a vote and they renamed it Lake Como. And the rest is history. And the rest is history. And it and I I I just you know, when I go to write a book, it it happens on many layers. And this character, Jess Barata, just got divorced, and she's really living in her parents' basement. Sad. And she has to rebuild. And I thought, how interesting that she's living in a town that had to rebuild.

[5:07]Zibby Owens: Totally. I love that. Okay. Tell listeners

[5:11]Adriana Trigiani: what the book is about. Well, you know, I kinda here's my elevator pitch that it's it's the story of a woman who rebuilds her life and the house that goes with it. And this is a lot of things on my mind that fed into this for the three year process of writing it that I I contemplated. And one of them is like the where do I feel the most at peace in the world? And the truth is I feel at peace in my grandmother and mother's hometown on the mountain in Italy. I just do in the snow. Like, like snow. I'm one of those people. And when I say at peace, I mean, in communion with the ever after. So that that I wanted to write about that. And then and and so many times too, Zibby, we we make mistakes that we think are mistakes, and they bring us shame and guilt and whatever. But that's not really what they are. They're just like doorways to another life. And so I wanted to dramatize that in a book, and so it's true of every layer of the book. Yeah.

[6:12]Zibby Owens: Well, even though the book is about Jess, it's also about uncle Louie and what happens with his life and some of his decisions. And as he you know, this is fairly on. I feel like I'm not giving too much away. I don't know. But, you know, when he when he passes away very sort of dramatically and she finds out all of this stuff about her uncle who's basically like her dad I mean, they're so close, and he's been such a role model to her. And then she has to uncover all these sort of family secrets that lay dormant. And and yet, you put it all under the context of, like, the marble industry, which who knows anything about, which is so fascinating. Talk about that relationship, the uncle niece relationship, which, by the way, does not get a lot of airtime in fiction.

[6:59]Adriana Trigiani: No. Well, you have the ARE, and eventually, I dedicated it to my four uncles that have passed away, that each one were very different people, But I got something from each of them. When I dived into the relationship between Uncle Louie and Jess, you find that there's a level of honesty there that you can't have with anybody else. She is in the family business with him. So they're the last two men standing. Her mother's complicated. Uncle, Louie, tried to give his sister a job. She just was terrible with the public, but he can't tell her that. And they go on and off from not speaking. I don't know if in your family, do people not speak, or is that an Italian thing? Because they go to the we send them to the island. That's when we're not talking to them. Go the island. No. We all speak. It's what's not said, I think. That's interesting. Okay. That's fascinating. Okay. Well, this is true too. Well, it's what's not said and then not and then holding a grudge when maybe if we spoke, we could work it out. But this is how they deal with things, And they never, when they start resume speaking, would they solve the problem. So it was repeated. And there's this idea that this kind of behavior reverberates in life. So she's gonna have to make a break with that somehow, even though uncle Louie isn't here to work it out with. Mhmm. He's present through the whole book, but he he isn't present physically through the whole book. So as she's working it out and and she makes a determination that she needs help. She can't do this on her own. So she's the first person since the Etruscans in this family that went to see a therapist, but she doesn't go to see him in an office. She goes online. Yep. Yeah. And, of course, her mother says go to the priest. It's free.

[8:49]Zibby Owens: What's it called? Like, true tech or something? I don't know. Newstep? Newstep? Thermi.

[8:53]Adriana Trigiani: Thermi. Oh my gosh. Thermi. Talking about? Okay. I don't even know what Newstep is. Yeah. Yes. Which is also fascinating. We could all use a little help, I'm sure. And why not? You write your problem down in the morning, and you call somebody. Hey. What do I do about this? Got any ideas? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[9:08]Zibby Owens: I found myself kind of wanting Jess to get back together with her ex. I don't know why. And I was like, why did she do that? And you you say at the start that, like, the whole town wanted them to reconcile. Right? There was, like, a huge movement. Yes. And, you know, as someone who's divorced, I'm like, oh, no. No. No. They should not reconcile. There's a reason. But then as it kept going on, I was like, but wait. I don't know. Where's this going?

[9:33]Adriana Trigiani: Well, you know, there's there's a moment in the book when they realize what they mean to each other. Mhmm. And sometimes, you know, Sibby, we don't we don't know. To me, just between us two girls here, I I think it's a mystery what makes a marriage work. I mean, you could say communication and this and that, but it's just sort of something you sort of know. It's the same feeling you get when you know you need to get out of a relationship that you you can't stay in it another minute. If you do, you'll just shrivel up and die. I mean so those two energy fields fed this novel too because I wanted her to reconcile that that she could love or appreciate or not her ex husband and maybe get back together with him if they were in a different place. But as the novel unspools, you find out what happened. And it's the way they she reacted and he reacted to this trauma, and it was never gonna work. Mhmm. Right? Or maybe it would, but she'd have to be the master of her destiny. So for the for the listener, you're gonna get a very beefy choice here between two people for her. And I kept saying to the publishers, my beautiful publishers at Penguin Random House at Dutton, kept saying to those folks, hey, This is a self love story. It's about somebody who has to she's not gonna navigate this through relationship.

[11:05]Zibby Owens: She's gonna navigate it through her life experience. Very interesting. Plus, you throw in not only the travel through self and identity, but literal travel where you take us you do take us out of New Jersey. Thank you very much. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with New Jersey. But, you know, everybody likes a little travel. Grab the passport. So you do offer us that sort of escape and through Jess's eyes. And what can we learn from other cultures? And where is our happy place in life? There's a Italian sculptor,

[11:34]Adriana Trigiani: a young sculptor named Jago, j a g g o. Some say Iago. Some say Jago. Let's say Iago. Let's say Iago. He's Italian, and he they call him the modern Michelangelo, and I was invited or Michelangelo. And I was invited to a screening of the film about his life and his creations. And he has created or did anew the idea of marble when it it seems sheer like fabric, you know, like Michelangelo did. But here's the thing, Zivvy. All that marble came from one source on one mountain, and it shall until the end of time. They will never use up the marble on that mountain. It is sheared off. It is not blasted anymore. It hasn't been blasted since the seventies. It's cut. These men I explain all of that because I am fascinated by the craftsmanship of this. The idea of marble is that it's very durable, obviously. The David is still standing. It's very dear durable, but if you just tap it in the wrong way, turns to dust. And she observes this. Jess Barata observes this, that that's her her heart, really, herself, her soul. Like, it's like a woman. You tap it just in the wrong way. Goodbye. We are finished. Right? And I loved how that she's a draftsman. We should say that, which I got into that. If you go to New Jersey, there's a lot of Italian marble there because that's the port where it comes in. So there's a lot of marble. Carrara marble. We should say Carrara, Italy, and Tuscany. So it's all part of the whole waft and weave of who she is. It's like her her life with her family, her parents, her brother, her sister, her you know, the idea that maybe someday she'll have children, their children. She's the maid not even though she's been married. She is the sister who is going to end up being the caretaker. In our Italian heritage, there's always one that stays home and does that or becomes a nun or a flight attendant in one of those careers. And if that's the case, you know, then we have a story about somebody who has to say, oh, that's the role you put me in, but that's not the role I necessarily wanna live. And so that's really what it's about. Because a lot of us are walking through life, there's a line out the door, people want to tell us how to do what we do. But that's not the way to do it. The way to do it is it for me it to be self motivated, what fills you up? What makes you complete? Who is your life partner? Where it's not dictated by a culture. Just because he's the cutest guy in town and he's the most prosperous doesn't mean you have to marry him. Let that echo throughout the

[14:25]Zibby Owens: the townspeople.

[14:27]Adriana Trigiani: That's right. That town. Yeah. Exactly right. Exactly right. Today's

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[17:16]Zibby Owens: So have you had an experience where your heart turned to dust?

[17:21]Adriana Trigiani: Well, that's an interesting question, Zipp. I I am someone, I'm gonna be really honest, where I love what I do so much. That was my always my focus. So, you know, crush is this or that, and I really married the man I fell in love with. I did not fall in love with anybody else. Now is that weird? People are gonna write in. Be but and I'm gonna and I could take it a step further. I don't really like the feeling of falling in love. There are people who are addicted to it made me sick. It's dizzying to me. Evidently, something chemically happens in your brain and, like, and while I love him and I'm still with him and we're married and all of that, I know you experienced this with Kyle, but it's like it's a thing. It's like that you know that I don't question it. Right? When you start to question it, well, you know what? I'd say check the exits.

[18:16]Zibby Owens: Check the exits. Get the hell out of dodge. Okay? Wait. That's so interesting, the idea that that one could be essentially allergic to falling in love. It's not a story in itself. Like, you have to keep running away from love. Yeah. I I I would I did it's not that it wasn't pleasurable,

[18:34]Adriana Trigiani: but I found it very odd. I found it and then and then I've had friends tell me they love that feeling of that roller coaster for the first, you know, six weeks or whatever. And I'm like, right for me. Maybe I just don't like heights. I don't know. But it's just I like the abiding part of love, of the mistake making part and the not being my best every day and then trying to do better. And you really know if you love someone when they get sick. If they drive you crazy, better check the exits. I mean but if you find yourself naturally everything falls away and I am caring for this person, I think that's a pretty good do you agree? I think that's a good indicator.

[19:22]Zibby Owens: I mean, do we have to extend this to dental work? No. Okay. Then, yes, I agree. That's the worst.

[19:29]Adriana Trigiani: That's the worst pain on the planet. Yeah. I don't know. That's funny. No. I I think that's what I like to wrestle with when I'm writing novels. I don't get to live everything, but I certainly can imagine everything. And if I can imagine it, then I can write it. And if I can write it, then I can make something, you know, manifest for the audience, for the reader, for the woman reading the book. So

[19:52]Zibby Owens: when you kept going back and writing more and more into this book, like, on a day where maybe you didn't feel like writing so much, what was it that kept calling you to it?

[20:02]Adriana Trigiani: Well, you know, when you're in one of those places where it seems sort of hard, look down the road of your plot a little bit. And what you're gonna this is just true of me for the writers listening. But I pulled the scene that's waiting for me forward. And I actually did it when when we were editing the Big Stone Gap movie. The editor was had reached it. He was bollocks up. And I went, take that scene there, put it here. And once we did that, then we had a path. So a lot of times, it's not about staying stuck and trying to push through the stuck, but pull something forward that you know you're gonna do. Because a lot of times what writers do is they know they have this big scene coming. So there's a build to it. Do the big scene. See what happens. Then you can you can move it around and play with it. Excellent advice. Yeah. For me, in the book, there's there's two there's two like, we call them comedy block scenes in in television and film, but it's they're they're the family. Everybody's there. Mhmm. And so you have a myriad of voices, which I love those scenes. Like, where there's a party and somebody shouts something. Love them. And there your clues are in that scene. Because from the big scene, you'll see where you paired off people, and then that create that can create the entree into the scene. So just basically write a party. Write a party. Write a meal. Write people creating something together. Something that they're doing that's that is a common purpose, and and you'll find it in there.

[21:34]Zibby Owens: Like marble,

[21:35]Adriana Trigiani: perhaps? Like marble. It's like marble.

[21:38]Zibby Owens: Did you just love that scene when the marble's coming up? I went and watched that happen. I love that marble coming off that tankard. I was literally thinking through this whole I was like, oh my gosh. How much research did she have to do? Like, how did did she know any of this before? Did you? I mean, this is a lot of detail. Well,

[21:54]Adriana Trigiani: I knew a little bit. A little bit just from my travels daily. I knew a little bit. But then I wanted to understand how they sell it, get it off the mount. This is also what's interesting to me. Like, how do they do that? Because I had my great grandfather, Davida, which is David in Italian, Davida Perrin of Venice, Venetian. He was from the Veneto. He only had three fingers on one hand, and he took a job. He was a farmer. This he ended up to be quite prosperous. Sippy Sippy, he's, like, did a whole thing on the where he bought this piece of land in Pennsylvania, just kept adding to it. He he he was very American entrepreneurial even though he was Italian, Venetian. Anyway, there's a whole story to how he lost those fingers in a quarry, slate quarry in Pennsylvania. It has the most the worst job in a quarry is the blaster, is the guy who handles the dynamite. And one of it was not stacked properly, and it blew his fingers off. Well, I didn't mean to, like, ruin our day, but learned to manage with the three. He was great. But that I always wanted to understand how that happened. And so when I went to Carrara, now they shear it. Okay? They block it. It's almost like they put points in it, and they take it off, like, in blocks. Mhmm. In the old days, they blew it up. And then what came down that wasn't shattered, they used, and they realized they were wasting. So that see, that's the stuff I get into. It's like and going up the mountain and well, what where were the offices? I went in a trailer, and that's that conjured all those scenes. And the the historian who's along for the ride and what all that meant and how she she didn't know where her career was gonna go. She didn't know where it was gonna go. She knew she knew how to do what she did, which was draft. But maybe there's something else for her.

[23:53]Zibby Owens: I feel like that analogy also applies to writing. Like, at first, you just keep blowing things up. And then as as you get better, you could, like, fine tune it a little bit. You could see what's under. You can you can see what's under better, but that takes time.

[24:07]Adriana Trigiani: That really takes time. You're making a great point about writing because you can know something for sure, you think, and then you get it down and you go, oh, that's not where this is supposed to go. And and and and you work it out. You figure it out. So

[24:25]Zibby Owens: you spend your time writing, but you also are uplifting authors, talking to people, podcast. You do, like, so many different things. You're my my sister in crime with this. I'm just saying.

[24:37]Adriana Trigiani: Which I love, because you're a writer, you're a novelist, and you do this. Okay? Look. I started doing this six years ago. I was terrible. And, like, we we we get better as we do it. But I'm just deeply curious. Mhmm. And I would have these conversations anyway. So I just started to think a book comes in and I get really interested. Tomorrow I'm talking to David Litt about surfing. I wouldn't any more surf than the man in the book. It's riveting. Today, Susan Morrison, who wrote the biography of Lorne Michaels, you've had these folks on, so you know them. And their their books are revelatory. And if I can help sell them for them, whatever I can do, I wanna do that because put it in the hands of librarians, put it in the hands of readers, put it in the hands of people who want to discuss things. You know, my mom was a librarian and she said there's an answer for every problem in the world in the library. Any problem we have, you know, personal, spiritual, emotional, practical, there's a manual, or there's a book, or there's a point of view. So I love doing it. So it's a lot of work that Zibby we always call you Saint Zibby behind your back because we don't know how you do it. Like, I'm always when I'm on an airplane, I've got three books with me I gotta finish or I gotta you know? And you can paint it however you want, which is the beauty of this. But it's a it's a huge service to the reader,

[26:08]Zibby Owens: to the listener right now. It really is, and I thank you for it. I think it's terrific. Well, I thank you too. And I think, like you, I am also curious. And so, yes, of course, we're doing this for authors, but also for ourselves because it's so fascinating.

[26:21]Adriana Trigiani: Your brain gets don't you feel you're a better writer because you read at the volume you read at? That's the shocker to me because when I was writing my novels and we were raising family, I I didn't read a lot of fiction. I was writing it, so I didn't have time to read it. Mhmm. Well, I enjoy it. You know? Yeah. Now I really enjoy your work. I I enjoy it. Mhmm. Which I didn't have the chance to do before. You know? Well, I did really love this book of yours, I have to say. It was really good. It was love that you loved it, and I love you, and I thank you so much because little trip to Italy. Not that we couldn't want. Couldn't we always a trip to Italy? Always. Always. When you lead a retreat there,

[27:04]Zibby Owens: sign me up. I'm gonna come. Okay, baby. Okay. You got it. You got it. You got it. Thank you. Thank you. Excited for you. To be. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Take care, sweetie. I'll see you soon. You too. Okay. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.

[28:38]Zibby Owens: So you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a three night stay anywhere? Anywhere. What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris? Yeah. Hilton Honors, baby. Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad in Tulum? Hilton Honors, baby. Oh, what about the five star Waldorf Astoria in The Maldives? Are you gonna do this for all 9,000 properties?