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Shop nowAn Italian Wife
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Learn moreFrom the bestselling author of The Obituary Writer comes the stirring multigenerational story of an Italian family.
An Italian Wife opens in turn-of-the-century Italy, when young Josephine Rimaldi is forced to follow her new husband to America in an arranged marriage and finds herself in a strange country with a man she doesn't know or love.
Bound by tradition, she gives birth to seven children; the last, conceived in a passionate affair, Josephine must give up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for this child, keeping her secret even as her other children, whose stories unfold in surprising ways, go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes: Her son suffers in World War I. Her daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs. And her granddaughters experiment with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the 1970s.
Poignant, sensual, and deeply felt, An Italian Wife is a sweeping and evocative portrait of a family bound by love and heartbreak.
Ann Hood is the author of more than a dozen books, including the bestselling novels The Book That Matters Most and The Knitting Circle, and three memoirs.
Original bio sent from Cassandra:
Cassandra Campbell began doing voice overs as the voice for Calvin Kleinās Italian commercials. This was followed by commercial and documentary recording in both English and Italian. She has recorded many audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an AudieĀ® Award nomination. As an actress and director, she has worked at the Public, the Mint, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stagewest, Theatreworks, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Millmountain Theatre, the National Shakespeare Company, and the New York Fringe Festival. Ā
Reviews
āI admire this graceful and intimate writer for her literary sleight of hand: you donāt so much read about her characters as you inhabit them.ā
āI loved Ann Hoodās An Italian Wife in the same way I loved Elizabeth Stroutās Olive Kitteridgeāand for the same reason. The interconnected stories that fan out from a central characterāin this case, matriarch Josephine Rimaldiāilluminate important truths about the ways in which our families, our ancestry, and the era into which weāre born shape who we become. An Italian Wife is a multigenerational masterpiece.ā
āAn Italian Wife is glorious. The life of Josephine Rimaldi is the heart of this multi-generational family saga with deep, fertile roots in southern Italy. Reading this novel was like taking a luscious train ride through the last century. It soars with the power of Josephineās dreams as she builds a life and family in America. Full of surprise and wonder, the writing is at turns poetic and sensitive, then dynamic and wise. Ann Hood is a master craftsman. This resplendent novel is a grand crescendo in a pitch perfect career.ā
āHood reinvents the family saga into something spellbindingly new and authentically aliveā¦From turn-of-the-century Italy to 1950s American suburbia to the psychedelic 1970s, Hood shows how love and history transform a family, fuelāand sometimes killātheir dreams, and connect them in ways they never might imagine. Sweeping, sensual, and downright astonishing.ā
āWith each chapter a coming-of-age tale of an individual family member, Hood offers a poignant view of the turbulent twentieth century. She successfully displays the connected, ordinary lives of her characters, whom readers will come to love, appreciate, and enjoy. This intricately woven, engrossing narrative will delight Hoodās readers and attract fans of literary family sagas.ā
āHood guides us through the complicated lives of a multigenerational Italian American familyā¦Each generation seems to resist the traditions of the preceding one, until the tender relationship between Josephine and a great-grandsonāa wonderful pairingāreveals that a love and respect of what (and who) came before often prevails.ā
āA century in the life of an extended Italian American familyā¦A soulful and multilayered book from this accomplished author.ā
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