ST. MARTIN PARISH — After uncovering a trunk of family memorabilia, a professor at the University of Louisiana (UL) has used her family's history to educate beyond the classroom. Madeleine Brauner Landry, was drawn to the stories hidden within a collection of wartime letters and personal artifacts, which ultimately led to the creation of her historical fiction novel, Caro Giovanni (or Dear John).
Landry's father, a World War II veteran, rarely spoke about his experiences during the war. As she recalls, “My father never spoke about the war. He was one of those veterans that you hear about—the bloodshed and none of that was told to us as kids. But this trunk was like this magic container that, every now and then, he’d open up.”
The 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina played a key role in Landry’s discovery. "My brother had my father’s army trunk, and after Katrina, he was worried the contents would get damaged, so he gave them to me," Landry explains. Once the trunk was in her possession, she began to explore its contents. Among the items, she found a bundle of letters written by Mafalda Riccadonna, a Northern Italian woman. As Landry read the letters, she realized they revealed a connection between Riccadonna and her father, though the exact nature of their relationship remained unclear.
The letters, dated from 1940 to the end of WWII, described the hardships of living through wartime Italy. Landry was moved by their emotional depth and decided to share elements of Riccadonna’s stories in a novel.
Landry recalls reading the letters for the first time, "She’s writing this to my father, and as I’m reading this, I’m thinking… there’s a story here," This discovery led to the creation of Caro Giovanni, a novel named after Landry’s father, John Brauner, who served as a U.S. Army soldier during WWII.
As a professor, Landry has long emphasized the importance of storytelling in her work, particularly in the field of interpersonal communication. She believes that sharing one’s personal history can have a profound impact on others noting that her novel allows her to bring attention to a piece of history that might otherwise have been forgotten.
In her research, Landry also delved into the Italian resistance during the war, focusing on how the Italian people fought alongside the Germans until the fall of Mussolini in 1943. “What happened in Italy is that the Italians fought with the Germans up until Mussolini was deposed in 1943. At that time, they switched to the Allied side, so the Germans hated them—yesterday you were shooting with us, today you’re shooting at us,” she explains.
Landry’s passion for preserving the untold stories of the war continued to grow as she explored the experiences of Italian women during the conflict. “I can put Mafalda in the middle of this action and finally tell these women’s stories that have kind of been forgotten,” she says. “The Italian women didn’t even get to vote until after WWII.”
Beyond the historical significance, Landry sees Caro Giovanni as a way to honor her father’s legacy and keep his memory alive for future generations. "None of his 12 grandchildren got to meet him, but I want them to know who he was," she explains. "I could bring him alive this way and pass this on as my legacy to my children and grandchildren, so they’d know a little bit about him."
From Family Trunk to Historical Fiction: A Professor's WWII Legacy
