An Italian immigrant watches her six children grow up while she searches for her seventh, the product of a love affair who was given up for adoption. In turn-of-the-century Italy, fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived...

Batholomeo di Crespi, a bachelor decorator in the upscale New Jersey town of Our Lady of Fatima, circa 1970. His exquisite taste in fabrics and decor have made B well respected in OLOF; he's decorated all the important houses, from his divorced older sister's Georgian manor to Aurelia Mandelbaum's mansion. Aurelia's myopic daughter Capri, still living at home at age 40, has been B's unofficial fiancee for 20 years, but this was their mothers' idea,...

Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation.

In his acclaimed novels of Italian-American life, Peter Pezzelli explores themes of friendship, hope, and second chances. With Villa Mirabella, he invites readers into the lives of an unforgettable family—and into the warmth of one very special bed and breakfast . . .
 
When Jason Mirabella returns to his childhood home on a blustery winter's day, the only thing he's sure of is that he'll be staying in Providence...

Novel delves into the operation of the Cosa Nostre by focusing on Mafia leader Vito Corleone and his underworld domain.

For years, Francesca Campanile was the queen of her home. Standing in her Rhode Island kitchen, Francesca dispensed advice as liberally as she did garlic, arguing nonstop with her son and two daughters. It was a wonderful life. But now, Francesca's children have moved away -- and for the widowed Francesca, not having a family around to pester, guide, love and cook for makes her feel useless. When Francesca sees Loretta Simmons's want ad for a part-time...

"...features personalities with ties to Federal Hill including three former Providence mayors, a Rhode Island lieutenant governor and a Providence City Council president. Also included are an historian, a judge and a U.S. ambassador, as well as priests, artisans, entrepreneurs and other Italian Americans from Federal Hill. Attacking stereotypes, this moving and lively depiction of the Italian American experience was filmed on location in historic...