In the Land of the Midday Sun
Available April 26th, 2026
The Italy of the John M. Glionna's ancestors cannot be found in the museums of Florence, among treasures shaped by the exquisite touch of da Vinci and Michelangelo, but a world away, on the peninsula's infamous boot. Their hands gnarled from planting pomodori, aglio and melanzana, his forefathers were peasant-farmers from the agrarian south - that other Italy - dirt-poor and uneducated, a land with a history of witch's spells and pagan gods. For them, working the earth wasn't art, it was a fundamental duty.
In 2023, Glionna experienced a cultural awakening: he travelled to his grandfather's home village to explore the landscape where his roots run centuries-deep. As he meets distant relatives, he asks questions echoed by all Americans exploring their ancestral homeland: "Who are these people?" "Who am I?" As a veteran Los Angeles Times journalist in search of his long-repressed Italianitá, he travels far off the tourist map, where he examines his grandfather's motives for emigrating. Beyond poverty and disease, he learns, southerners of his era faced a historic discrimination from their own countrymen that also drove them abroad. The book examines his father's upbringing as a child of immigrants and focuses on a realization that the author, like his father and grandfather, is proudly, deeply Italian, southern Italian.
282 pages • 9"x6"x0.6" paper • $25.00
Upcoming Publication: April 26th, 2026
Upcoming Publication: April 26th, 2026
John M. Glionna was a Seoul-based Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent from 2008 to 2012 and covered South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Pacific Islands. Later, as the paper’s Las Vegas bureau chief, Glionna covered the American West. He has written extensively about California and co-taught a journalism course at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Glionna is now a freelance writer who divides his time between Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He is the author of Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State.
Praise for In the Land of the Midday Sun
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“With profound sensitivity and a journalistic eye for detail, Glionna takes us on a journey from America to the forgotten landscapes of southern Italy. This book is not only a personal search for family roots, but also a reflection on memory, migration, and the enduring bonds between past and present.”
— Pomarico Mayor Francesco Mancini.
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“John M. Glionna’s book reminds us that the places we come from never abandon us. The search for our roots leads us to understand that the past continues to speak to us through the succession of generations — the fruit of thousands of lives, choices, and sacrifices of those who came before us.”
— Francesco Glionna (not related), architect, historian, genealogy researcher and moderator of the Glionna in the World website.
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“John M. Glionna’s In the Land of the Midday Sun is the rare family memoir that finds the deeply-rooted truth of his heritage. As he gets to know his extended family in the southern Italian village of Pomarico, Glionna reconnects with not only his father and the grandfather he barely knew… but himself.”
— Glenn Stout, Author of Young Woman and the Sea.
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“Returning to his grandfather’s village in Basilicata, Glionna gives us an evocative Italian American memoir tracing his journey from the New World to the Old Country. We feel an American heart learning the language of belonging, one sunrise at a time."
— Donna Chirico, Professor of Psychology, York College/CUNY and Resident Faculty, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.
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“This is a book that speaks to everyone, written with simplicity and warmth, capable of relating not only the portrait of a grandfather and his village, but also the universal sense of belonging and roots. It’s a story that reminds us how every place, even the smallest, can hold the emotional key to our family histories — and ourselves.”
— Mario Bruno Liccese, photographer and correspondent for Lucanian newspapers.
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“In a small southern Italian village, John M. Glionna unearths a rich network of family connections, charming eccentrics and his own place in the life of a small village in southern Italy, a world seldom visited by tourists. It’s a captivating account of self-discovery by a first-rate story-teller.”
—E. Thomas McClanahan, author of Pranked.
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And more...