Nicola DeRobertis-Theye’s debut novel, “The Vietri Project,” weaves a contemplative tale of identity, history, and belonging through the narrow streets of Rome and the wider landscape of 20th-century Italian history. The novel follows Gabriele, a rudderless twenty-something American with Italian roots who embarks on a quest to find a mysterious customer from her bookstore days in Berkeley. What begins as simple curiosity evolves into an exploration of family trauma, cultural identity, and the way history’s ghosts continue to haunt the present.
The Search for Signor Vietri: A Quest Without Resolution
DeRobertis-Theye constructs her narrative around an elusive center—the titular Vietri, who ordered hundreds of esoteric books while Gabriele worked at a Berkeley bookstore. When she arrives in Rome after months of aimless travel through South America, Gabriele fixates on finding this enigmatic figure. Her mission becomes both literal detective work and symbolic quest for meaning.
The novel’s strength lies in its atmospheric rendering of contemporary Rome, a city where ancient history and modern life collide on every corner. DeRobertis-Theye writes:
“Nothing was ever able to stand for just itself in Rome.”
This observation becomes the philosophical backbone of the novel as Gabriele navigates a city where “everything had already been touched by so many wars, traumas, millennia.” The author excels at depicting Rome as both beautiful and frustrating, inviting yet impenetrable to outsiders.
However, readers seeking narrative resolution may find themselves disappointed. The quest for Vietri deliberately remains incomplete, serving instead as a framework for Gabriele’s internal journey. While this artistic choice supports the novel’s themes about the impossibility of fully knowing another person’s story, it can feel unsatisfying when so much narrative energy is devoted to a search that remains largely unresolved.
Family Trauma and Mental Illness: The Heart of the Novel
Where “The Vietri Project” truly resonates is in its unflinching portrayal of family trauma, particularly Gabriele’s relationship with her schizophrenic mother. The protagonist exists in a state of suspension, afraid to build a meaningful life because of the looming possibility that she might develop the same condition:
“The great uncertainty that hung over my life, the thing that prevented me from feeling that my life was real, that it belonged to me, was the dull and predictable fear of becoming like my mother.”
DeRobertis-Theye handles these aspects with nuance and sensitivity. Gabriele’s recollections of her mother’s episodes—including a harrowing memory of being taken to a motel for days as her mother spiraled into delusion—are rendered with painful clarity. The parallels between Gabriele’s obsessive search for Vietri and her mother’s fixation on conspiracy theories add psychological depth to the novel.
Strengths and Weaknesses: A Mixed Literary Debut
Strengths:
- Rich setting depiction: Rome comes alive through precise, sensory details that capture both its beauty and contradictions.
- Cultural complexity: The novel thoughtfully explores what it means to belong to two cultures without fully inhabiting either.
- Historical integration: The author skillfully weaves Italy’s complex 20th-century history—from fascism to the “Years of Lead”—into the personal narrative.
- Language and style: DeRobertis-Theye writes with an elegant restraint that suits her introspective protagonist.
Weaknesses:
- Pacing issues: The narrative sometimes meanders without sufficient tension to propel readers forward.
- Character development: While Gabriele is well-drawn, supporting characters occasionally feel like vehicles for exposition rather than fully realized individuals.
- Unresolved threads: Several storylines are left deliberately open-ended, which may frustrate readers looking for more conventional narrative closure.
- Limited emotional range: The protagonist’s detached perspective, while psychologically realistic, can create emotional distance for readers.
The Wider Context: Historical and Contemporary Italy
One of the novel’s most compelling aspects is its exploration of Italy’s fascist past and how that history continues to reverberate in the present. Through Gabriele’s research into Vietri’s possible military service, DeRobertis-Theye confronts difficult truths about Italian colonialism in Africa and war crimes that have been largely erased from popular memory.
The author also skillfully depicts contemporary Italy through the experiences of Gabriele’s millennia cohort—educated young people facing limited opportunities in a stagnant economy. The conversations between Gabriele and her Roman cousins about the lack of prospects for their generation feel particularly authentic and provide important social context.
Style and Structure: Fragments Building Toward Wholeness
“The Vietri Project” embraces fragmentation as both style and substance. The narrative moves between present-day Rome, Gabriele’s memories, historical research, and the stories of people she encounters. This structure mirrors the protagonist’s attempt to piece together disparate facts into a coherent whole—both about Vietri and herself.
DeRobertis-Theye’s prose is contemplative and precise, occasionally achieving moments of striking insight:
“The things I could know about a life were nearly infinite, I could go on collecting knowledge of Vietri for years, there would always be gaps, there would always be something I didn’t know, or failed to understand.”
This observation captures the philosophical heart of the novel—that understanding another person’s life is ultimately impossible, yet the attempt still holds value.
The Quest for Identity: Being Italian-American
At its core, “The Vietri Project” is about the complexity of cultural identity, particularly for those with mixed heritage. Gabriele’s relationship with her Italian family is complicated by her American upbringing and her mother’s absence. Her faltering Italian becomes symbolic of her incomplete connection to this part of herself.
As she gradually reconnects with her extended family in Rome, Gabriele begins to see how their family narratives might offer stability rather than constraint. The novel suggests that identity isn’t something to be discovered whole but constructed from fragments of family history, cultural inheritance, and personal choice.
Comparative Analysis: Literary Context
DeRobertis-Theye’s debut brings to mind other literary explorations of cultural identity and family history, such as Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Lowland” or Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See.” Her portrayal of a young woman’s drift and search for meaning also shares DNA with contemporary novels like Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” or Patricia Lockwood’s “No One Is Talking About This.”
The novel’s structure and themes also recall Rachel Cusk’s “Outline” trilogy, with its focus on observation and the stories of others as pathways to self-understanding. Like Cusk’s work, “The Vietri Project” prioritizes introspection over plot resolution.
Final Assessment: A Thoughtful if Imperfect Debut
“The Vietri Project” is an ambitious and thoughtful debut that showcases DeRobertis-Theye’s talents as a writer of place and inner life. The novel excels in its evocation of Rome and its exploration of cultural identity, family trauma, and the impossible task of fully knowing another person’s story.
However, the narrative sometimes suffers from pacing issues and unresolved storylines. The protagonist’s emotional detachment, while thematically justified, occasionally creates distance that makes it difficult for readers to fully invest in her journey.
For readers who appreciate:
- Literary fiction with strong sense of place
- Exploration of cultural identity and belonging
- Introspective narratives focused on personal growth
- Historical fiction that connects past and present
“The Vietri Project” announces DeRobertis-Theye as a writer with a keen eye for cultural complexity and psychological nuance. Despite its flaws, the novel offers a thoughtful meditation on how we construct meaning from fragments of history, both personal and collective. Like Rome itself, the story reveals its layers gradually to those willing to meander through its winding passages without demanding immediate revelation.
An Intimate Journey Through Memory and History
DeRobertis-Theye has crafted a novel that, like its protagonist, exists between worlds—between thriller and meditation, between America and Italy, between past and present. Though it doesn’t always strike the perfect balance, “The Vietri Project” offers a compelling portrait of a young woman learning that understanding one’s place in history might be the key to claiming a future. For patient readers who appreciate literary fiction that raises questions rather than providing neat answers, this debut will provide much to contemplate long after the final page.
