As the penultimate stop on his recent book tour, Moreno Giovannoni visited Myrtleford Library on last Wednesday to discuss his latest work, ‘The Immigrants’.

More than two dozen people gathered to hear about Mr Giovannoni’s semi-fictional, autobiographical novel, which centres around his years growing up in Buffalo River are in the 1960s.

'The Immigrants' is the sequel novel to his well-received debut,'The Fireflies of Autumn'.

He said the response received from this recent book tour was phenomenal.

“I think the shared memory people connected with the most is the tobacco in Myrtleford, which is great,” Mr Giovannoni said.

“I wanted to write almost a record of what it was like from a human point of view: mothers, fathers, children on the farm, that kind of thing.

“Not a dry account of the work which was done in the paddocks and sheds: I wanted to inject the human element into the story.

“I tend to write what people call literary fiction: the reviews have been fantastic and I couldn’t be happier.

“But I’m thinking for my next book, there will be a crime.

“The working title of the book is ‘Summer Holiday, 1973’, it starts when I was 18 years old and living in Italy.

“I might start the book with a crime and see where it goes.

“Libraries on book tours are very well organised: they get a lot of people in and there’s always someone from the local bookshop selling the books.”

Belinda Harrison from Edgars Books and News in Wangaratta said the book tour has gone really well.

"There were a lot of people here who knew Moreno,” she said.

"They had some great questions about the area and shared some memories.

"There were lots of people who recognised the local area in the text and perhaps some of the stories from the region, even though the towns have been renamed.

"It is great to promote a local story: the book is able to shine a light on the area's history.

"We feature a lot of authors, so to be able to bring Moreno back to the area where the story is set, is just great."

Mr Giovannoni said he and his brother would catch up with old family friends in Bright for afternoon tea, following the book tour that afternoon.