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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher

AN ITALIAN WIFE

Ann Hood

AN ITALIAN WIFE opens in turn-of-the-century Italy, when young Josephine Rimaldi is forced to follow her new husband to America in an arranged marriage, finding herself in a strange country with a man she doesn’t know or love.

Bound by tradition, she gives birth to seven children; the last, conceived in a passionate affair, Josephine must give up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for this child, keeping her secret even as her other children, whose stories unfold in surprising ways, go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes. Her son suffers in World War I; her daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs; and her granddaughters experiment with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of the 1970s. Poignant, sensual, and deeply felt, An Italian Wife is a sweeping and evocative portrait of a family bound by love and heartbreak. AN ITALIAN WIFE raises questions of marriage and family, and ultimately explores the things that, in the end, we value most. Ann Hood is the best-selling author of The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, and Comfort and The Obituary Writer, among other works. She has been the recipient of a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award, the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction, and two Pushcart Prizes. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Book Published 2014-09-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

AN ITALIAN WIFE is a multi-generational masterpiece.

A big, full-hearted grazie to Ann Hood…She has given us a feast of a story: impressive in its range, sumptuous in its evocations of love and loss, and deeply satisfying.

Hood reinvents the family saga into something spellbindingly new and authentically alive…From turn-of-the-century Italy to 1950s American suburbia to the psychedelic 1970s, Hood shows how love and history transform a family, fuel—and sometimes kill—their dreams, and connect them in ways they never might imagine. Sweeping, sensual, and downright astonishing.

Hood crafts a stark tale of loss and longing.

Is there anyone who can write about the connections between ordinary people as well as Ann Hood does?

You might call Ann Hood’s latest book a novel, and you might call it a short story collection. “An Italian Wife” falls somewhere between — a series of linked stories that, together, have all the gravity and sweep of the most engrossing novel. Read more...

Glorious…Reading this novel was like taking a luscious train ride through the last century…Full of surprise and wonder, the writing is at turns poetic and sensitive, then dynamic and wise. Ann Hood is a master craftsman. This resplendent novel is a grand crescendo in a pitch-perfect career.

A soulful and multilayered book from this accomplished author. Read more...