The shoemaker’s daughter, by Adriana Trigiani

Needing a break from dystopias (Hunger Games) and miserable childhoods (Why be happy when you can be normal?), I was happy to immerse myself in a little light reading by Adriana Trigiani.  She’s actually a fine writer, and her carefully researched history of her family’s Italian immigrant experience adds considerable weight to many of her novels, including this one.  Enza and Ciro grew up a few miles apart in villages high in the Italian Alps.  Meeting briefly as teenagers, a spark is immediately lit, but Enza is forced to immigrate to America with her father and leaves without saying goodbye.  Ultimately (this is a romance after all) they reunite in America.  This is not only their story, but the story of many immigrants, and is, in fact, based on that of the author’s grandparents.  Enza sewing skills, and her courage in the new country, lead her to an important job at the Met, where Caruso becomes a friend.  Meanwhile, Ciro, after witnessing a priest’s indiscretion, is forced to flee the convent where he and his brother have been raised after his father’s death and mother’s breakdown.  He also ends up in the New York area.  After learning the shoemaker’s trade, and seeking more information about the death of his father in the iron ore mines of northern Minnesota, Ciro ultimately settle in Chisholm MN.  There are good times, and tragic ones as well as world wars intrude on family life.  An engrossing read made more so for me because of the parts about the early history of the Mesabi Range area where my mother grew up and we still visit annually.  496 pp.