Beautifully rendered and with chapters to work like invitations, I highly enjoyed this book. Matteo Righetto writes well and I hope to read more from this author.

Soul of the Border is an excellent historical novel, set on the isolated, impossible-to-reach and ever moving border between Austria and Italy. Nevada is a small, dying village with only one thing going for it - the Brenta Valley, in tiers cut into the side of Mount Grappa, produced excellent, much sought after Nostrano tobacco. It took the long intense labor of the whole De Boers family, and the tobacco company who provided the counted seeds monitored the crops at every stage and picked up the entire crop when ripened and cured - and paid the farmer only what they wanted to.

Though rarely enough to feed a family of five for the whole year, generations of De Boers men had worked out a system wherein they played with the few seeds provided by the tobacco company intended only to replace failed plants in the spring fields. Done properly, the De Boers family would have a small hidden crop of prime tobacco. And they had a ready, hungry market for that product in the mining towns on the Italian side of the mountains. Money was impossible over there as well, but Augusto had worked out a system of barter wherein he smuggled cured tobacco into the mining towns in exchange for copper and silver ore smuggled out of the mines in the bellies of the miners. There was a steady market for the metals in Austria, and with that grace the family only rarely had to go hungry. Of course the border was seriously patrolled against smugglers but it was wild steep country and a cautious farmer could make the trip each fall and be able to make it through the winter without to many hunger pains.

Augusto and Agnese had three children. The oldest of the DeBoers children was Jole, born in 1878 followed by Antonia in 1883 and Sergio in 1886. The autumn she was 16, Jole made the journey over the mountain with her father for the first time, their mule Rufus loaded down with 80 kilos of tobacco. It was an exciting and scary trip for her, for the most part without incident, and she felt like a real part of the family machine, ready and willing to do her part in all aspects of the farm needs. The following autumn Augusto went alone and did not return. The next three years without Augusto were very rough and the spring and summer's work was almost impossible, but with autumn of the third year Jole had a small stash of fine tobacco and a hand tamed wild pony to replace the missing Rufus. And thus began her first solo journey over the mountains to deliver their surplus tobacco and find out what happened to her father.

An excellent story, well told, peopled by characters you want to know. I am pleased to recommend this historical novel to friends and family.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Matteo Righetto, and Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC:
This is about smuggling tobacco in the early 19th century when Italy/Austria were basically serfdoms. To survive, a tobacco grower has to smuggle tobacco over the border and on one trip takes his daughter Jole with him. Dad disappears on one of those trips and she is left to fend for the family herself.