The Vietri Project is a coming-of-age / self-discovery tale of Gabrielle, a 25-year-old bookseller in Berkeley.

Shortly after Gabrielle is hired in the bookstore, a letter arrives from a gentleman named Giordano Vietri ordering over fifty books that he would like the bookstore to ship to him to Rome. Eleven days after the first letter, a second letter arrives with the request for more books. As the days pass, these unusual requests become routine for more than two years. Once the orders stopped and Gabrielle was unsure of how to go about her own future, she sets out to find out more about who is Vietri and why was he ordering so many books.

Since she has Vietri’s shipping address, she starts by doing a quick search on Google maps. Gabrielle’s mother was born in Rome and still had her extended family there. After her demise, Gabrielle had not been in contact with her aunts. So while she planned to go to Rome in search of Vietri and his story, she was unsure of reconnecting with her family. However, while following a trail of paperwork in search of Vietri, Gabrielle is expectedly drawn toward her family. With complicated family ties and a painful past, Gabrielle tries to make sense of her search for Vietri and its implications on her life.

How did it make me feel?

In the beginning, I was quite engaged with the story as The Vietri Project introduces a perfect amount of mystery to Vietri’s character. This convinced me to keep going. However, the pace falters as the story moves on, which dampens this curiosity.

Furthermore what ruined this story for me was the style of writing. For the majority of the time, I could not follow the train of thoughts of this character, Gabrielle. The long, never-ending sentences just came out as a muddled rambling. The entire narrative seems without purpose, somehow. Like it jumps from one place to another, but nothing comes out of it.

I was so intrigued by this concept when I first read about it. A 25-year-old bookseller, traveling to Italy in search of a mysterious customer. I was expecting so much thrill, excitement, humor, and silliness along with the character’s meaningful maneuver of her insecurities, pains, and happiness. Sadly for me, The Vietri Project was not successful in doing so.

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