By Coral Gables Gazette staff
Peter Santenello has traveled to 85 countries and lived in five. For his first book, he turned his lens homeward.
“Your Fellow Americans: Dispatches from Across the Country We Call Home” collects stories from communities across the United States that Santenello argues are often overlooked or misrepresented by conventional media. On Wednesday evening, the independent journalist and filmmaker will bring the book to Books & Books for a signing and photo opportunity with readers.
From world traveler to chronicler of ‘unfamiliar’ America
Santenello built his following through immersive, long-form videos centered less on landmarks than on the people who live in the places he visits.
He began producing regular long-form work in 2017 while living in Ukraine, including a series in which he moved in with a family in the Ukrainian countryside near the Sea of Azov. Rather than reporting from a distance, Santenello put himself inside the community and allowed residents to tell much of the story themselves — an approach that became the foundation of his later work.
After returning to the United States during the pandemic, he increasingly turned that method on his own country, traveling through communities and subcultures he believed were poorly understood from the outside. His YouTube channel now has more than 4.2 million subscribers.
“Your Fellow Americans,” published Aug. 4 by Simon & Schuster, carries the same approach into book form: porch conversations with Amish snowbirds in Florida, a search for reindeer with Siberian Yupik communities in Alaska and a stay on a houseboat deep in the Louisiana bayou. The journey moves through Appalachia, East Los Angeles and communities in between.
Underlying those encounters is Santenello’s argument that America is more complicated — and less neatly divided — than its political and media narratives often suggest. The people he encountered, the publisher says, repeatedly expressed a desire to be seen and heard despite considerable differences in geography, culture and politics.
A book built from the channel
Early reviews have focused on the same mix of immersion and confrontation that distinguishes Santenello’s videos.
The Los Angeles Times, including the book among its August recommendations, described Santenello’s approach as “Anthony Bourdain crossed with Michael Moore,” while noting that readers may either embrace or reject his self-described nonpartisan perspective. Bookreporter called the resulting journey “dynamic, dramatic, surprising and often comfortably amusing.”
Simon & Schuster describes Santenello as an independent journalist and filmmaker whose work allows people to tell their stories in their own words. His current focus is on American communities that are diverse, complex and frequently misunderstood.
Signing, not a traditional author talk
Wednesday’s Books & Books event is structured as a signing and photo line rather than a traditional seated author conversation.
The $30 “1 Entry + 1 Book” ticket, plus tax, admits one guest and includes one copy of “Your Fellow Americans,” along with access to the signing and photo opportunity. A ticket is required to participate in the event.
Readers who cannot attend can still purchase the 336-page book through Books & Books. Simon & Schuster also offers it in hardcover, e-book and audiobook editions.
If you go…
A Book Signing & Photo Op with Peter Santenello begins Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables.
Tickets are $30 plus tax and include one copy of “Your Fellow Americans” and admission for one guest to the signing and photo line.
