Book Review Shoemaker's Wife

While the book is central to our book club gathering, so is the food and beverage experience. Martha was in charge of the food for this meeting. She chose an Italian theme since the book focuses on the Italian immigrant experience. Her charcuterie board was quite appetizing, as she prepared a lot of interesting and delicious food choices.  

Italian candies were ordered online

And the Lemon Mousse was simply heavenly. 

Now for the book...

January Book Club Choice

An epic love story that travels from the Italian Alps across the Atlantic to New York City and then to the Iron Range of Minnesota. A beautifully written historical novel by Adriana Trigiani features her grandparents' love story, which is spread over several decades. The heart of this novel is love, friendship, loss, taking a risk, hard work, and following one's dream as an Italian immigrant. The novel is divided into three parts: The Italian Alps, Manhattan, and the Iron Range of Minnesota.

Trigiani is a master of visual details for the variety of settings covered in the book. Scenes are vividly brought to life for the reader with her descriptive writing, which is authentic and realistic given the many time periods she covered. Trigiani has created so much goodness in these characters, who are strong, complex, resilient, daring, and inventive, all trying to carve out a better life for themselves. It is admirable how each character never forgets what they were leaving behind nor the important people in their lives who are a part of their story. Coincidence and fate prevail in this story. We see characters make mistakes and bad choices but are confronted with forgiveness.

And so the story begins in 1905 in Bergamo, Italy; Caterina Lazzari finds her husband has died in America in a mining accident. She does the unthinkable, knowing she can’t raise her two sons, Ciro and Eduardo, alone anymore, and drops them off at a convent to live with nuns with the promise to return in a year to pick them back up. As time passes, their mother never returns!

Not far from Bergamo, a bit further up in the mountain village of Schilpario, Enza, the eldest daughter of the Ravenellis, lives with her family. She works all the household chores, studies as a seamstress, and helps her dad, Marco, with his carriage business. Their family income is very meager.

Ciro and Eduardo become young teenagers. Ciro is sent up the mountain one day to dig a grave for a funeral. One of Enza’s siblings has passed away. And this is where Ciro meets Enza for the first time. Their ease of conversation and their friendly exchange leaves them both smitten with each other. But life takes them in a different direction as Ciro leaves for America to become an apprentice for a shoemaker. Enza later leaves with her father, Marco, hoping to earn money in America to send home to their family to build a house.

The author does a great job developing a sense of culture in America, where Enzra finds a job as a costume seamstress at the opera house. Here, she discovers the music of opera singer Enrico Caruso and finds new opportunities to socialize with the elite. The discovery of the classics of English literature helps improve her reading and writing skills. Meanwhile, Ciro devotes himself to learning and perfecting the trade of being a shoemaker. A move to Minnesota challenges this newly married couple to take a risk and start two new businesses.     

Despite the length of the book, which is a hefty 475 pages, it kept my attention from beginning to end. Some scenes left me in tears since I was so swept up in the story. I recommend this book and give it the highest rating of 5 stars. Adriana Trigiani's writing is evocative and lyrical. 

ALL ABOUT THE AUTHOR- ADRIANA TRIGIANI

Adriana Trigiani is The New York Times bestselling author of twenty books in fiction and nonfiction. She has been published in 38 countries around the world. The New York Times calls her “a comedy writer with a heart of gold,” her books are   “tiramisu for the soul.” She wrote the blockbuster The Shoemaker’s Wife, the Big Stone Gap series, the Valentine trilogy, and Lucia, Lucia. Trigiani’s themes of love and work, with emphasis on craftsmanship and family life, have brought her legions of fans around the world. Their devotion has made Adriana one of “the reigning queens of women’s fiction” (USA Today).