I'm not Italian, but my mother-in-law was, so my husband and children all possess robust northern Italian genes. This story makes me wish I did, too! Trigiani's wonderful novel is a story of enduring love and strength, family ties, sacrifice, and freindship.
Enza Ravanelli is a gifted seamstress and the eldest daughter of a close knit family and Ciro Lazzari is a young man who has been raised by nuns, along with his brother, after the death of their father. The two meet briefly and fall in love as teenagers in Italy. Unbeknownst to Enza, Ciro is soon sent to live in America after being banished by the unscrupulous local priest. Eventually Enza and her father also travel to America to earn money to build a home for the family in their village in the foothills of the Alps. Throughout the ensuing years, the two meet several times as Ciro masters shoemaking and joins the army during World War I and Enza sews costumes for the Metropolitan Opera Company, including the great Caruso. Eventually the two marry and settle in Minnesota, building a new life and a new family.
Trigiani manages to fill every page of this novel with color, texture, and historical ambience. Based on the lives of her grandparents, Lucia and Carlo, the novel transports the reader into pre-war Italian village life, the trenches of France, the glamour of back-stage life at the Met, and the streets of Hoboken and little Italy. The Shoemaker's Wife is a testament to family love and inner strength and is filled with characters that are both admirable and endearing. Please read it!
I absolutely loved The Shoemaker's Wife and highly recommend it to anyone who is considering it. As with all of the author's books, you will find an engrossing story that is beautifully written. I always get so immersed in her books that I feel as if I've fallen into them and can nearly envision the characters and locations, and that is definitely true with this novel. I read a lot, but I remember all of Adriani Trigiani's books because they are so vividly written.
ReplyDeleteSpanning the generation of first Italian American immigrants, this book brought understanding of how they felt leaving their country and how they came to embrace America!
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