The Italian Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Washington in collaboration with New Academia Publishing and SMATCH presented Album di Famiglia: A Visual Novel by Anna Maltese Lawton. The presentation included a video staged by Tonino Tosto of Gruppo Teatro Essere and his troupe, with original music by Ernesto Gordini and Danilo Pace.

Album di Famiglia is a family saga which unfolds on the background of Italian history from 1870 to 1945. The rich narrative tapestry includes a castle in the Monferrato area, three women, three generations, and a hundred minor characters. It brings to the fore individual lives and human predicaments, personal feelings and universal themes. The place that inspired the novel is the Castello di Cortanze, which belonged to the author's family for more than half a century and served as the set for the staging of the video.