Murder In Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy Audiobook (Free)

‘Tantalizing’ – NPR

“An exciting detective story… Stapinski pursues the analysis of her family’s legal genealogy with unexpected emotional outcomes.” – Library Journal

A writer is going deep in to the heart of Italy to unravel a century-old family mystery with this spellbinding memoir that blends the suspenseful twists of earning a Murderer and the emotional insight of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels.

Since childhood, Helene Stapinski heard lurid tales about her great-great-grandmother, Vita. In about Murder In Matera: A GENUINE Story of Passion, Family members, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy Southern Italy, she was a loose woman who acquired murdered somebody. Immigrating to America with three kids, she dropped one along the way. Helene’s vibrant obsession with Vita deepened as she grew up, eventually propelling the journalist to Italy, where, with her personal kids in tow, she pursued the story, determined to create the record right.

Locating answers would take Helene a decade and numerous travels to Basilicata, the rural ‘instep’ of Italy’s boot-a mountainous property rife with thieves, superstitions, old-world traditions, and eager poverty. Though fake leads sent her down blind alleys, Helene’s dogged search, aided by a few lucky-even miraculous-breaks and a group of colorful local characters, led her to the reality.

Yes, the family stories she’d heard were true: There had been a murder in Helene’s family, a getting rid of that roiled 1870s Italy. But the identities from the killer and sufferer weren’t who she thought they were. In revisiting events that happened more than a century before, Helene found another stunning realization-she wasn’t who she believed she was, either.

Weaving Helene’s have story of discovery with the tragic tale of Vita’s life, Murder in Matera is a literary whodunit and a moving tale of self-discovery that brings into focus a long ago tragedy within a little-known region remarkable for its stunning sunny beauty and dark buried secrets.