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Made in Italy: Rosso, bianco, & sangue blu

Casey McQuiston's Red, White, & Royal Blue is staple in both the queer and romcom book communities. It's highly visible on BookTok and Bookstagram, and should you peer at any Gen Z or Millennial's bookshelf for more than five seconds you'll immediately spot the iconic red spine. This is truly a special novel, loud and proud in its optimism and radical queer joy, which is why I personally found it so thrilling to see Rosso, bianco, & sangue blu available in various Italian bookstores.

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined.

Casey McQuiston is the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop, Red, White & Royal Blue, and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, as well as a pie enthusiast. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with Pepper, a poodle mix and semipro personal assistant.

This edition was translated by Daniela Rossetti and published by Hope Edizioni in 2021, two years after the original 2019 English release. Hope’s Edizioni’s translation was arranged with KT Literary llc. (American) and Gabriella Ambrosioni S.r.l. Literary Agency (Italian), with Italian editors Laura Caroniti and Stella Pagani overseeing the project. Translator Rossetti has worked with a variety of romance novels, including the Vegas Crush series by Raine Miller and the Valetti Crime Family books by Willow Winters. 

One interesting aspect of Rosso, bianco, & sangue blu is the inclusion of its glossary, explaining everything about American, Mexican, and British culture. Both tamales and the thanksgiving turkey pardon are included. The translation keeps many state departments' and/or institutions' names in English, such as the Secret Service, and it's only in the glossary that they're translated and/or related to Italian equivalents. It's a wonderful addition, and I enjoyed pouring over it with my roommate on the train back from Florence.

The Italian edition also sees slight design changes with the chapter headers, vector imagery of the White House, being changed to pink from the original grey, and the cover font and typography changing slightly to adapt to different spacing caused by the translated title. The publisher's logo is also included in the corner, which is not uncommon in Italy, though is rare to find in American books.

You can find more of McQuiston’s work at their website, https://www.caseymcquiston.com. Rosso, bianco, & sangue blu is available for purchase at www.mondadoristore.it. You can buy McQuiston’s latest novel, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, at your local bookstore today. 

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