When the Mountains Dance: Love, loss and hope in the heart of Italy

In the aftermath of the powerful earthquake in Italy, Italians began referring to the earth beneath their feet as "la terra ballerina," the dancing earth. Foreign correspondent Christine Toomey spent years renovating her hill-top home in Le Marche, Italy, but in 2016, a series of earthquakes struck the heart of the Apennines, throwing the region into chaos. Fuelled by a collection of century-old letters, oil paintings, and an earthquake map of Sicily, Christine becomes absorbed in the life of the last permanent resident of her house, the enigmatic priest, Don Federico Bellesi, and unravels his connections to the convulsions that rock the region. "When the Mountains Dance" is a heartfelt, thought-provoking, and boldly intimate story about the places that make us and the life-changing thunderbolts that can come at any time from any quarter.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 30 March 2023
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

In the aftermath of the most powerful earthquake in Italy in nearly forty years, accompanied by numerous aftershocks, the Italians began referring to the earth beneath their feet as "la terra ballerina," the dancing earth. The dance they spoke of was an unrelenting and relentless force.

Foreign correspondent Christine Toomey dedicated years to renovating her magnificent, long-abandoned hilltop home in Le Marche, Italy, as a sanctuary of rest from covering crises around the world. However, in 2016, the tranquility and beauty of this beloved landscape were shattered when a series of powerful earthquakes struck the heart of the Apennines. Grief-stricken by the loss of a place still reverberating with seismic aftershocks, Christine embarked on a journey of discovery through the history of a landscape that gave birth to so much of Western culture and civilization. Fueled by a collection of century-old letters, oil paintings, and an earthquake map of Sicily hidden away and thick with dust in her attic, she became increasingly absorbed in the life of the last permanent resident of her house, the enigmatic priest, Don Federico Bellesi, and began to unravel his own myriad connections to the convulsions that rocked the region.

When The Mountains Dance is a heartfelt, thought-provoking, and boldly intimate story infused with love but also tough reality. It is a story about the places that make us, and the life-changing thunderbolts that can come at all of us, at any time, from any quarter.

Weight: 474g
Dimension: 162 x 242 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474614634