Camillo's Catalyst

Camillo Ricchiardi is a military maverick with a mammoth ego.

After spending more than half of the 1890s in various wars across Asia, Camillo returns to Alba in northern Italy–the town of his birth–to pay respects at his parents' grave. His estranged sister, Ottavia, has also arrived in town with her two restless sons. As the brother and sister try to catch up on what they've missed in each other's lives, an unexpected foe from Camillo's past shows up–his grudgeful former friend, Bernardo Tomaselli.

Camillo doesn't want to cause any trouble. After all, his reputation for gratuitous violence at war precedes him. But unresolved business from years ago pulls him deeper into a conflict as dire in reality as it is in his own mind. With his eager gaze set on the looming war clouds over the Boer republics in southern Africa, Camillo's chance to leave his quaint Italian hometown without a fight becomes less likely by the minute.