A story of love, dreams, exile and tragedy, told with heartbreaking beauty
Winner of the Fiction Prize in the 2026 Age Book of the Year Awards Winner of the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction at the 2026 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
'Although if they are asked before they die, they all say they came here for a better life, they do not always find a better life, do they?'
In the Victorian town of Mitrefò, tobacco is grown, an Italian cinema and café open, and people travel back and forth from Italy. A boy fishes, wanders the countryside and watches a community form, with its joys, scandals and shared understandings. Interspersed are the 'grotesques' – indelible and terrible events that sit alongside the better future they all seek.
In The Immigrants, Moreno Giovannoni depicts a family as they build a new life in a strange land. Through love and exile, industry and tragedy, their unspoken dreams and fears unfold in this astonishing and moving book.
Shortlisted for the Fiction Prize in the 2026 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards
Praise for The Immigrants:
'This book is written with such tenderness and clarity, you'll be instantly drawn into the suffering and joy of these lives.' —The Guardian
'This delicious autobiographical novel about Italian migrants in Victoria's tobacco-growing country starts, quite literally, with a bang and charms with its large cast of distinct characters, tender wit and sensitivity.'—The Age
'Giovannoni writes about his subjects with such care, tenderness, and gentle humour …The Immigrants, a compelling, emotionally rich work, offers a poetic and at times moving treatment of a little-known part of Australian history.'—Australian Book Review
'A masterful piece of literature that captures the reality of immigration to Australia for many Italians. It presents all its convoluted dynamics, emotions and consequences of displacement, identity, loss- and hope.'—Il Globo
'Moreno Giovannoni has a gift for words that resonate beyond their surface meaning. The book is epic in the breadth of its detail — the vastness of the landscape seen through a child's eyes, the struggle to live, the sadness of disappointed hopes, and the growing sense of a punitive fate that blighted those initial dreams.'—Eureka Street
'Just when you think you have its measure, the book pivots in some delightful, unexpected direction. It is a joy …The Immigrants branches steadily outward until it is telling something far larger than one family's story – something universal and necessary.' —Judges' comment, The Age Book of the Year Award 2026
'The Immigrants was selected as this year's winner due to its flawless writing, sublime experimentation with form and extremely sensitive sense of place. Giovannoni's autofiction wraps the reader around his life like some sort of spell, creating a humbling reflection on the entire life that someone lives – and what remains of it once they're gone. The judges were particularly impressed by its polyphonic form and distinctive Australian quality. It will take readers to places they've never been before.' —Judges' comments, NSW Literary Awards 2026