Gianna Mia

Description

To Gianna Dellesanto the 1930s world of her parents, brothers, and sisters was a safe, happy place, poor in material things but rich in love and dreams. It was also a world narrowly defined by ethnic and religious traditions.

But 1941 brought to an end forever the small, closed-in world of the Dellesantos. The death of a brother in action caused Gianna to question everything in which she had always believed. Then Christopher Branning, a young divinity student at nearby Yale, came into her life—and into her sister Annamarie’s—trapping her in a web of conflicting loyalties between two people she loved dearly.

This is a story of old dreams and new beginnings, as the family whose love held them close through tragedy is divided because of a father’s stubborn pride. The author has carved a rich and often amusing slice of ethnic life. Readers can almost taste the tomato sauce bubbling on the stove, or the smelts and shrimp frying on Christmas Eve, as they share the struggle of this immigrant family to attain the American dream.