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Sal Mallimo, author of Piccolo Santino

A memoir by Sal Mallimo

A childhood
in motion

Piccolo Santino

Some childhoods never truly leave us. They wait within us, until one day we find the voice to tell the story.

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Cover of Piccolo Santino by Sal Mallimo
CalabriaNew York
Mallimo family on Pier 84 in New York, July 5, 1958
★ 2025 Pacific Book Awards Finalist / Best Biography / Best Memoir ★

Reads
Like a
Movie

01CalabriaCampo (Open field), slingshot illustrations and a dedication to childhood friends Franco and Pino in Jonadi
02The CrossingMallimo family photograph from 1958
03New YorkPortrait of Sal Mallimo
◉

Piccolo Santino: A Story destined for the Screen

The Life I learned withPiccolo Santino-My Italian Childhood

The Life I Learned with Piccolo Santino book cover

13Books on AmazonA collection available to readers

Reviewed in the US Book Reviews
The Life I Learned with Piccolo Santino: My Italian Childhood, Book One Pilot by Sal Mallimo

13Completed ScreenplaysRegistered with the WGA

🏆 Award Winner Episode 7 at Manhattan International Screenplay Awards by CINEVERSE,
Austin, Texas

The books and screenplays represent a substantial creative undertaking, offering prospective producers and production partners an opportunity to explore the project's potential for television or streaming adaptation.

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Bartolo’s Story: Before Piccolo Santino, The Prequel by Sal Mallimo

Discover the Prequel

Bartolo's Story,
Before Piccolo Santino.

Before Piccolo Santino's childhood there was Bartolo's story.

An Italian soldier caught in the turmoil of WW II, Bartolo endured a harrowing experience of captivity inside a Russian POW Camp. His story reaches into a difficult chapter of history, exploring the hardships, struggles, and human experiences that shaped his life long before the childhood memories recounted in Piccolo Santino.

A powerful prequel rooted in history, family, sacrifice, and the enduring spirit, Bartolo's Story opens another window into the world behind the Piccolo Santino saga.

A Separate Story. An additional screen opportunity.

Bartolo's Story: Before Piccolo Santino has also been developed as a screenplay and registered with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), making it an additional completed writing project available for consideration by prospective producers and production partners.

🏆 Finalist in the Cambridge Script Festival
Cambridge

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The Mallimo family on Pier 84 in 1958

Pier 84, New York, July 5, 1958

The story

Before America, there was a small town in Calabria.

Santino’s earliest years hold the humor, hardship, family ties, and private ambitions of a boy growing up in postwar southern Italy. When his family reaches America, a new world asks him to find his own way through it.

Enter the story →

Books by Sal Mallimo

Stories whispering from times gone by, echoing in your heart forever.

Cover of Piccolo Santino by Sal MallimoPiccolo SantinoMy Calabrian Childhood in the ’50s. Then to New York Italian Style.New release anniversary edition
Cover art for A Walk in Time by Sal MallimoA Walk in TimePoetry from Real Life About Love and Death.
A Walk in Time promotional artwork by Sal Mallimo

A Walk in Time

Poetry from real life about love and death.

Books to Life Marketing

Book Review by Sheila Roberts

5/5 ★★★★★

Review:

Reading Sal Mallimo's A Walk in Time: Poetry from Real Life About Love and Death was far more than an encounter with brilliant verse; it was an intensely emotional, deeply soul-stirring reckoning with the fragile, beautiful thread that binds us across the abyss of loss. Mallimo captures the raw, crushing ache of human grief, most poignantly in "Elyseat18", with such authentic, luminous tenderness that watching a grieving daughter find her steady anchor in a father's unconditional love brought me to tears of pure catharsis. To witness the dark shadow of tragedy transformed into a warm, hopeful beacon of enduring gratitude held up a searing, sacred mirror to the resilience of the human heart. Mallimo hasn't just crafted a unique poetic journey; he has offered a timeless, comforting sanctuary for anyone navigating love and loss, leaving an indelible, permanent mark on my soul that will forever remind me of the light hidden within our darkest trials.

See the videoPacific Book Review
Artwork for Water, Light and A Door by Sal Mallimo

Water, Light and A Door

A bilingual book of poetry in English and Italian, English and Spanish, English and French.

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Water, Light and a Door poem in English and Italian, with photographs of a tree, waterfall and doorwayWater, Light and a Door: Acqua, Luce e Una Porta, bilingual English and Italian poetry by Sal Mallimo
See the video

What is being said around the world about Piccolo Santino

★★★★☆

souvenir d'un temps passé

J' aimé ces souvenirs de l' enfance de l' auteur dans une Italie juste après la guerre et sa plongée brutale dans le Nouveau Monde . Ce livre est mieux qu' un roman , sincère et véritable .

jacques de Lavareille

Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2020
Paperback · Verified Purchase

Read the review on Amazon ↗

“The book’s portrait of family, and migration is irresistible. Audiences here loved the combination of humor and pain.”

Li Hua, Programming Director

Beijing Cultural Exchange Forum

★★★★★

A work of art! Poignant. Magical. Beautiful. Grabs you and doesn’t let go.

An extraordinary work of art…yes, a must read! Poignant, tender, painting life with words that are colorful, personal and immediately draw you in. For me the imagery has elements of Magical Realism, as we experience childhood through the eyes of young Santino. We become Santino. And, drink of the Italian countryside, traditions in flux, culture ever evolving and family. The book is universal in its scope of time and place, of the trials and tribulations of growing up. Spellbinding in its descriptions. So much heart and soul poured into each page. To know Santino is to love Santino.

Imagewave

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2026
Paperback · Verified Purchase
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