In 1880 Lorenzo Perin, wife Caterina, and children Domenico and Marietta, join 300 fellow Italians to escape poverty and follow their dream of establishing a utopian Catholic community in the Pacific. There are barriers at every turn. The Italian and French authorities refuse travel papers and support. An ill-equipped ship, moored in Barcelona, is promised by the French promoter of the scheme. At sea, the situation quickly deteriorates. Marietta learns she has strengths she never imagined. Domenico is enthralled by the exotic ports they visit. Caterina suffers from a mystery illness and carries a secret. After 100 days, the surviving emigrants arrive at New Ireland, in New Guinea, where they attempt to establish a colony in the jungle. Appalling conditions create mounting pressures. The expedition leaders abandon them. Escape seems impossible. The dream lies in tatters. Domenico loses faith in his father; Marietta rises to the challenge. Australia beckons. But shortages of food, water and coal force them to travel via New Caledonia where the death toll mounts and their final challenge awaits them.
After petitioning Governor Parkes in New South Wales, Australia finally welcomes the refugees, and their new life as accidental Australians begins.
Written by a great-grandson of Lorenzo and based on true events, this epic tale is a heart-rending and timeless story of emigrant dreams.
Steve Capelin spent his childhood roaming the backstreets of suburban Morningside in Brisbane. He survived a Catholic upbringing and scraped into the University of Queensland where he studied Economics, the course with the least number of contact hours, where he was captivated by the politics of the late 60s and the thriving cultural life on campus.
Driven to explore his creativity, he enrolled in every arts workshop available while at Queensland University and over the next ten years taking classes in mime, mask, life drawing, painting, clowning, eventually running away to Melbourne (with a pregnant wife) to work as a clown. A restless young man, he worked in Canberra for the Bureau of Census and Statistics, qualified as a primary school teacher, and travelled through Asia for a year visiting every country between Indonesia and Turkey with his now wife Andrea.
He subsequently co-founded the Brisbane based theatre company Street Arts, spent a year as a stay-at-home dad, taught theatre at QUT and edited a book about political theatre.
For the following 20 years he worked in local government leading arts projects and managing youth programs while maintaining an interest in writing through his blog My Missing Life.
He has a passion for local community and local history and has written Paradiso, a novel based on the true story of his Italian great grandfather’s flawed dream of utopia.
Steve Capelin
Paradiso by Steve Capelin