Author Talk: Angelina Mastrippollito (A Ferragosto Pre-event)

Join us for an author talk with Angelina Mastrippolito, as she discusses her debut book, Le Seconde: Inheriting the Unspoken with our Five Dock Librarian Gayatri Krishnamurthy. Discover the inspiration behind her writing, the journey to publication, and the powerful themes explored in her book.

About the author

Angelina Mastrippolito grew up in Ingham alongside other Italian migrants. She has held senior executive positions, including CEO and COO, in a number of superannuation funds. She is currently a director of the Brave Foundation and is on the committee of the Sydney and Inner West U3A and Inner West Speakers.

Le Seconde is her first book. Angelina lives in Sydney’s Inner West.

About the book

Angelina’s childhood in the far North Queensland cane fields is full of adventure. But it is also turbulent. Her beloved grandfather was an ardent fascist. Her father and grandfather struggle with the ferocious undercurrents of an unspoken past. Her mother, as the dutiful Italian wife, cannot speak about how she feels. Instead, she teaches her young daughter a revolutionary song that she knows will irritate her father-in-law.

As an adult, Angelina must deal with different sets of preconceived notions about who she should be and what she should do as well as the inherited trauma of the second generation. She enters corporate Australia at a time when women’s voices were only starting to be heard. Often, she is the only woman in the room and the only person with Italian heritage.

Choosing between what is expected of her as a woman and what she feels she must do will have consequences.

Through the telling of her own story, Angelina reconstructs her family’s diaspora story from World War II Italy to the far North Queensland cane fields at a time when Australia’s White Australia Policy was still in place. Their fractured history takes her to Mussolini’s rise to power, German-occupied Crete, the Gustav line in southern Abruzzo and Adelaide’s Loveday internment camp.

After years of conforming to what she thought it meant to be ‘Australian’, she realises that her identity as a second-generation immigrant woman, one of Le Seconde, is a lot more complex.

About the event

This special event has been planned as a pre-event for the Ferragosto Festival and is proudly supported by Aperol, Calabria Family Wines and That's Amore Cheese, with refreshments provided. Don't miss this opportunity to meet the author, enjoy the conversation, and celebrate Italian culture and storytelling ahead of the festival.

5:30pm - Light refreshments

6-7pm - Author talk

7-7:30pm - Book sales and signing