Between Two States

Developed from the biography of Antonio Pacitti (1924 – 2009), ‘Between Two States’ describes a family forced live between two countries, and their prevailing instinct to thrive despite the hardship of separation and migration.

This novel by Diane Pacitti draws from the factual history of three generations of the Pacitti family uprooted by the political unrest which swept through Europe in the 1920s.

Forced to flee a parochial pro-fascist community, Vincenzo finds his family split between the industrial city of Glasgow and the rural communities in central Italy.

Whilst Vincenzo’s daughter Gabriella enjoys a secure youth and finds love in the care of her aunt, uncle and grandfather in small-town Cassino and Cerasuolo in central Italy, his five year old son Antonio flees Italy with his parents to grow from child to man in the dark, over-populated city of Glasgow.

The increasing power of the fascist movement and the outbreak of World War II erode the family’s stability again, turning Gabriella’s life to hardship, and displacing Antonio to the town of his birth, as a British soldier.

Between Two States has been translated into Italian by Laura Ferri (Centro Siena Toronto) and is published in 2020 by Cosmo Iannone Editore under the title Tra Due Paesi.