by Kent Heckenlively ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2024
A studied novel about a volatile time in both American and Italian history.
A historical novel about Italian Americans in the 20th century.
Heckenlively introduces a Sicilian named Vincenzo Nicosia, who’s merely a boy when his father receives a 20-year sentence for beating up a jeweler in 1907.It’s a major blow to Vincenzo’s family; his mother is even forced into sex work to make ends meet. The youngster places the blame for his family’s plight on the local Duke du Taormina, a man named Alessandro de Leone, whom he feels is responsible for his father’s tough sentence. Years later, a politician named Benito Mussolini is building a following; he has many enemies, one of whom happens to be Alessandro. Mussolini offers a deal to Vincenzo: If he kills the duke, Mussolini will free his father—and give him the duke’s property, to boot. Vincenzo shoots the duke, but then his entire family is murdered by Mussolini’s thugs, so he decides to flee Sicily for America. In San Francisco, after years of hard work and ruthlessness, he winds up running a successful construction business. He also falls in love with a widow named Jacquetta Mercurio,who, as chance would have it, is the daughter of Alessandro. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Jacquetta’s nephew Alex Falcone enlists in the U.S. Army. His platoon fights their way from North Africa and on into Italy, where he’s wounded. In Sicily, he learns more about his grandfather Alessandro, the “Lion of Sicily.” Alex will go on to become much more involved in the future of the country than he ever imagined.
This account of Italy and the impact of its fascism makes for some intriguing, often overlooked history, such as the fate of the Italian monarchy following the war, as well as Western fears about a potential communist takeover of the country. By contrast, Vincenzo’s time in America is more familiar; this part of the book shows how he struggled to find work and master English before his rise to become a man of power, but it’s not particularly novel. He was, after all, a man who once cut a deal with Mussolini, so his later, cruel decisions, such as firing a friend as soon as he becomes a foreman, are unsurprising. But he’s not involved with the Italian American Mafia, which allows for some nuance, although he shows himself to be quite capable of committing a Mafia-like murder. Still, the question remains of just how aggressive he’ll become. Even after Vincenzo has a daughter with Jacquetta, there’s no telling who might raise his ire in the competitive world of San Francisco construction. Things kick up a notch when Alex enters World War II. Although readers will, of course, know how the war ends, they can’t predict the extent of Alex’s involvement; he witnesses some lesser-known terrors of the fighting in Italy, such as the massacre at the Ardeatine Caves. Although Vincenzo’s quest isn’t as engaging as Alex’s, the work ably portrays the clash between an old world and a modern one.
A studied novel about a volatile time in both American and Italian history.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781956763959
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Leigh Bardugo ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2024
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
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