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Oct 24, 2014DorisWaggoner rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A family saga, from Victorian Italy to post WW II MN. Ciro and Enza are born on the same poverty-stricken mountain, but don't meet until they are 16. For Enza, it's love at first sight, but it takes him years to realize her worth. He's sent to America, becoming a shoemaker. Soon disaster strikes Enza's family, and she and her father go to America to help their family. The two meet and separate several times until finally, after WW I, they marry and go to MN to set up, with another Italian couple, a shoemaking shop. Their love is deep, their lives are happy, but tragedy intervenes. Their only child, Antonio, refuses to take his exemption from the WW II draft, giving Enza years of fear, until he comes home safe, with a bride she already loves. This is a weepy book, but also very deep, and anyone whose family comes from immigrant roots from that time period can identify, Italian or not. I loved it, and will be reading her other books.