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Michael Pedretti is the author of eight books: Time to Journey Home, Begetters of Children, The Book of Agnes (translated into Italian—Il libro di Agnes), Diary of Giovanni Vener: An Immigrant's Journey to the Heart of America, Life of Peter, La Storia di San Bernardo, the dog and i and The Inside Story of Movement Theatre International’s Mime and Clown Festivals covering the history and development of the longest running international theater festival in America.
Pedretti traveled to Italy several times to encounter the small valley in Northern Italy that his ancestors called home for a thousand years before immigrating to a small Midwestern town in the mid-nineteenth century. There he discovered his ancestors were kind, creative and empathetic people. He became inspired to write a twelve-book American epic titled The Story of Our Stories covering many generations in a family saga that highlights their contributions to and perspectives on life. While there he researched the genealogical roots of the main family of his stories. More importantly, he experienced the places and met the people who still live in the communities he has written about. He is over halfway through writing the twelve-volume epic called The Story of Our Stories, which tells the journey of an archetypical American family, starting from the earliest human mother right through the next generation, with a focus on the last families to live in Europe and the first families to settle in America in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Reviewed by Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite
Time to Journey Home: Story of Our Stories by Michael Pedretti brilliantly documents the author’s journey home to his ancestral roots. In this account, the author decides to visit a small valley in Italy where his forebears lived for a thousand years before moving to a Midwestern town in the mid-nineteenth century. While most epic tales explore physical prowess, war, and incredible feats, this epic tale explores the unique kindness and empathy of his ancestors: “No, our story is hidden in the mothers, ‘who long since left the shores of craving, supremacy, and war to explore generosity, affection, and creativity.’” Here is a story that involves many people, one that looks at a unique and essential element — the power of kindness and the place of the woman in our history.
Time to Journey Home: Story of Our Stories by Michael Pedretti is well-researched and readers feel the excitement of exploring their own past or revisiting their family history to uncover those human strengths that define them and that give them a vision. Michael Pedretti is a great storyteller with a unique sense of history and geography. He unearths gems of a civilization that can easily be lost in a selfish and consumerist culture like ours, where everyone fights for themselves, and where the most elemental of human values are quickly being replaced by a drive that is ego-centric. The writing features wonderful imagery, like the gorgeous descriptions of places like Genoa. Time to Journey Home is both enlightening and entertaining, a non-fiction narrative that compels the reader to look back and learn to read history from a new perspective. This author redefines the idea of epic.
