Featured Interview With Ken Tentarelli
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in New Jersey in an Italian-American family. In our home, my parents spoke only English and never told me about our family history so I knew little about Italy until many years later whenI traveled there.
As a kid, I had a fascination for electrical gadgets. That interest grew and shaped my future career as an electrical engineer working initially on the design of long distance communications systems initially and later on internet protocols.
I married shortly out of college, and my lovely wife Elizabeth and I moved to rural New Hampshire where we raised two children, enjoyed the wildlife, and shoveled snow.
Liz and I are frequent visitors to Italy. In our travels from the Alps to the southern coast of Sicily we developed a love for the country’s history and its people. We studied Italian culture and language in Rome and Perugia. Back home, I’ve used those experiences to teach courses in Italian history spanning time from the Etruscans to the Renaissance.
I’m a strong advocate for my local library.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My professional career as an engineer left me with little time or interest in history. That changed when my wife and I took a tour of Italy. Witnessing the places and things that shaped lives hundreds of years ago was awe-inspiring. We made annual trips to Italy, exploring different regions each time, but always including Rome and Florence in our itineraries.
I became captivated by Renaissance Florence, imagining what life must have been like. Envisioning the past prompted me to try writing. My debut novel featured Nico Argenti, a young man newly returned to Florence after graduating from the University of Bologna law school. Life in Florence, as I read about it, was new to me and, to a degree, it was new to Nico as well, because he’d been sheltered for six years in an academic community.
A Publishers Weekly starred review motivated me to keep writing. I was getting to know Nico and eager to learn more about him. That meant delving into his world by doing more research, which culminated in five more books in the Nico series.
Extending my research took me back further in time to when the Black Plague devastated Florence. The incredible events of that era form the core of my latest book, The Blackest Time.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy, and learn from, a variety of authors and genres. My number one favorite author is John Sandford. I relish the natural sounding dialogue in his books. He’s a master at developing characters through dialogue. Sandford’s books are contemporary police procedurals.
As a historical fiction writer, I really appreciate the research that went into Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series. It’s an historical epic that begins in the twelfth century.
One of my all time favorite books is Richard Russo’s Straight Man. I’m not sure what genre it fits into but the humor is delightful.
Currently I’m reading Ben Franklin by Walter Isaacson. The vast majority of books I read are fiction, but occasionally I enjoy the diversion of a good non-fiction read.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Blackest Time is set in Florence during a horrific time in history, when the Black Plague claimed more than half the city’s population. The plague is the backdrop, but the story isn’t about the disease itself; it’s about the people and how they coped with the incredible adversity. Gino, the book’s central character, is a young man who moves from his family’s farm to Florence to find work in an apothecary shop. Through his experiences, we see how people supported each other to overcome the extraordinary hardship.
Working in an apothecary shop, Gino encounters a broad cross section of Florentine society: doctors, merchants, government officials, working folk and affluent businessmen. Each of them reveals an aspect of life during the plague.
Compassionate people helped their neighbors through their suffering by offering food, shelter, and comfort. Doctors tried relentlessly to treat the afflicted. Religious people prayed for God’s mercy. It wasn’t the disease itself, but the response of the people that inspired me to write The Blackest Time. I saw so much happening and felt their story needed to be told.
When I told people the book takes place at the time of the plague, their reaction would be, “Wow!” that must be depressing, but it isn’t. The Blackest Time is an uplifting story about the resilience of the people and the human spirit’s ability to overcome unimaginable adversity.
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