A story of love, dreams, exile and tragedy, told with heart-breaking beauty

‘Although if they are asked before they die, they all say they came here for a better life, they do not always find a better life, do they?’

In the Victorian town of Mitref , tobacco is grown, an Italian cinema and cafe open, and people travel back and forth from Italy. A boy fishes, wanders the countryside and watches a community form, with its joys, scandals and shared understandings. Interspersed are the ‘grotesques’ – indelible and terrible events that sit alongside the better future they all seek.

In The Immigrants, Moreno Giovannoni depicts a family as they build a new life in a strange land. Through love and exile, industry and tragedy, their unspoken dreams and fears unfold in this astonishing and moving book.

Shortlisted for the Fiction Prize in the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Shortlisted for the Fiction Prize in the 2026 Age B