A Country of Paper spans two countries (the United States and Italy), three generations of women (Alice, her daughter Jane and her granddaughter Sara), and more than sixty years, from World War II to 2011. It tackles issues of cultural identity, family ties, displacement, and loss as it follows Sara in her journey to L'Aquila, Italy, to fulfill her grandmother's last wish. Her personal quest intersects with the town's struggle to recover from the disastrous 2009 earthquake, as Sara painfully uncovers her family's history while trying to find her bearings in a devastated urban landscape.

A Country of Paper spans two countries (the United States and Italy), three generations of women (Alice, her daughter Jane and her granddaughter Sara), and more than sixty years, from World War II to 2011. It tackles issues of cultural identity, family ties, displacement, and loss as it follows Sara in her journey to L'Aquila, Italy, to fulfill her grandmother's last wish. Her personal quest intersects with the town's struggle to recover from the disastrous 2009 earthquake, as Sara painfully uncovers her family's history while trying to find her bearings in a devastated urban landscape.

A Country of Paper spans two countries (the United States and Italy), three generations of women (Alice, her daughter Jane and her granddaughter Sara), and more than sixty years, from World War II to 2011. It tackles issues of cultural identity, family ties, displacement, and loss as it follows Sara in her journey to L'Aquila, Italy, to fulfill her grandmother's last wish. Her personal quest intersects with the town's struggle to recover from the disastrous 2009 earthquake, as Sara painfully uncovers her family's history while trying to find her bearings in a devastated urban landscape.