This is the first (and only) English-language version of an award-winning Italian novel The Nine Lives of Tito d’Amelia. Nine Lives is a love story about a cat, a family, and an Italian town. Mixing fiction with fact, Nine Lives tells the story of the town of Amelia, Italy, throughout the 32 centuries of its history. In fact, Amelia is considered the first organized city of central Italy, four centuries older than Rome.

The author uses the multiple lives of a cat named Tito as the way to span the centuries. Author Ettore Farrattini Pojani is the heir of the Farrattini dynasty, a centuries-old family in Umbria whose family palazzo is in Amelia, north of Rome. Tito’s first life occurs in pre-historic Umbria, and his ninth is in the future. Tito’s mission though all nine of his lives is to help the town and the family to succeed. A changing cast of characters traces the Farrattini line though the centuries, with Tito joining up with a Farrattini in each generation. Using his feline wiles, Tito bends humans to his will, helping them through many challenges from drought to wars to lovelorn marriages to selfish politicization of joint crises.

In this highly imaginative novel, the author mixes fictional lives with non-fictional information about historical figures as well as the Farrattini family and the town of Amelia. Readers are left wondering about details, such as what is fiction and what is fact. The last chapter will evoke surprise, though a clue that the surprise is coming is contained early in the book. Originally published in Italy in 2022, this first English-language version is published by Bayou City Press in Houston, Texas, and includes additional drawings, maps, lists of characters, a listing of foreign words and special terms, and notes on sources.

Complementing Ettore’s book is his website, which will soon go on line. The Nine Lives of Tito d’Amelia is also available as an ebook on Kindle. Ships to USA destinations only. Ships via USPS Media Mail. Buy the Kindle book from Amazon