Margo Sorenson: Hi, or rather, I should say Ciao. This is Margo Sorenson and I'm going to talk a little bit about Secrets in Translation, which is a crossover adult/young adult novel. And I had loads of fun writing it because, oh my goodness, I had to go to Italy of course to do more research. What inspired Secrets in Translation was I think all of us feel like there's some place we would like to belong and those of us who move quite frequently find it a challenge and especially when you're changing cultures and so forth. And the story actually stems from my having grown up in Southern Italy, well, Madrid and then Southern Italy as a child, and then moving to the United States which was my nominal passport country, but I had never lived here, and I was American. So it was quite a culture shock, but I really, really love the Italian culture and the Italian people.

And I wanted to write a book that would not only encompass that feeling and celebrate the Italian culture and people, but also introduce people to the idea of getting along in other cultures and things that you can do to make that happen. The process was quite involved as you can imagine because I'm dealing with two languages and my Italian is doable. It's not terrific. So I counted on my fluent Italian friends to help me out with some of the language, but mainly it was research about certain places in the town of Positano that I had forgotten, and so one of my good Italian friends took her camera and went out and took pictures specifically of where I needed my character to be. Also, we have good Italian friends who run an agritourismo in Tuscany and he was very helpful helping me do the research on the wine industry and limoncello and also the organized crime world. He had me read a lot of newspapers in Italian and get a lot of the news. So it was really a process. It took me fourteen years to put it all together. It was a challenge, but it was really a fun challenge. Thank goodness for our Italian friends because otherwise Secrets in Translation wouldn't be on bookshelves.

My favorite part about creating Secrets in Translation is the character Alessandra who is so determined she's going to stay American and not turn back into an Italian because of all the mean girls back in the United States where she was trying to fit in. And it was just fun watching her develop her character and then she's over there in Italy as a nanny to this tween from hell seriously. And it was my editor's genius idea to take this little tween from hell, who really is a brat, and turn it into a friendship by the end of the book, which did not occur to me at all. And I think it just made it such a much better book and so much more fun to read. So those were some of the highlights that I really enjoyed.

What I'd like readers to bring to the book is just a love of Italy or a willingness to be charmed by Italian life. And what I hope they take away is an understanding of and respect for the culture and how warm and welcoming Italians are, and that they have just contributed so much to civilization. And I hope that they also get an understanding of what it's like to try to bridge two cultures. A lot of us are learning to do that these days. And I think that's always a fun challenge for people.