Recently divorced, Jess Capodimonte Baratta helps her Uncle Louie with his marble business from her parents’ basement in Lake Como, New Jersey. But when an unexpected loss within the family unearths long-buried secrets, Jess questions where her loyalties lie. Deciding a change of scene is needed, she escapes to Italy - her ancestral home.

From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany to the glittering streets of Milan and the enchanting shores of Lake Como, which despite a shared name could not be more different from her hometown, Jess soon feels a sense of belonging. And when she meets dreamy Angelo Strazza, a passionate artist, she know that this is where she is meant to be.

But as further revelations about her family history come to light, it’s clear that Italy cannot be Jess’ hiding place forever.

Will the dark truths of her ancestral past send her back home?

Or help her finally live life on her own terms?

New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani takes us from the cobblestone streets of Greenwich Village to lush New Orleans to Italy and back again, from the tricky dynamics between Old World craftsmanship and New World ambition, all amid a passionate love affair that fuels one woman's determination to have it all.

For more than one hundred years, the Angelini Shoe Company in Greenwich Village has relied on the leather produced by Vechiarelli & Son in Tuscany. This ancient business partnership provides a twist of fate for Valentine Roncalli, the schoolteacher-turned-shoemaker, to fall in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner with a complex past . . . and a secret.

But after the wedding celebrations are over, Valentine wakes up to the reality of juggling the demands of a new business and the needs of her new family. Confronted with painful choices, Valentine remembers the wise words that inspired her in the early days of her beloved Angelini Shoe Company: "A person who can build a pair of shoes can do just about anything." Now the proud, passionate Valentine is going to fight for everything she wants and savor all she deserves--the bitter and the sweet of life itself.

The basis for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's cinematic romance starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.
Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, "Blood and Swash," Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.
Originally published in 1945, made into a movie in 1947, and later adapted into a television sitcom in 1968, this romantic tale explores how love can develop without boundaries, both in this life and beyond.
With a new foreword by Adriana Trigiani.
Vintage Movie Classics spotlights classic films that have stood the test of time, now rediscovered through the publication of the novels on which they were based.

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** THE SWEEPING, SUN-DRENCHED STORY OF LOVE, FAMILY AND UNTOLD SECRETS SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF WWII, FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER 'Adriana is a storyteller second to none' HEATHER MORRIS, bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz 'Trigiani never fails to sweep you away . . . an emotional and beautiful tale of family, love, and loss' TAYLOR JENKINS REID, bestselling author of Malibu Rising 'There is a reason Adriana Trigiani is so beloved by her millions of devoted readers . . . gorgeous' SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'A big, beautiful, wonderful book; romantic, moving, transporting, affecting I will do everything I can to encourage everyone to read it' LOUISE DOUGLAS, bestselling author of The House by the Sea _________ Domenica Cabrelli had two great loves of her life. The first, her childhood sweetheart: a boy from the same small, sun-drenched Italian town of Viareggio. A romance born out of yearning and shared history; over before it really had a chance to begin. Then, on an idyllic French coastline in the shadow of war, Domenica's second great love affair, which would go on to define her - a mysterious captain, with a future on the front line. Many decades later, only her daughter, Matelda, knows the true story of these two men's lives, and the secret that connects them. And, as the end of her life nears, Matelda realises that some truths are too great to be lost. But as she works against the clock with her own daughter to unpack their family's legacy, more questions arise than answers. What was the real story of her mother's wartime years? What kept her away from Italy for so long, after the fighting had ended? And what, ultimately, brought her home again? . . . _________ 'An unforgettable historical epic. This rich family story is magnificent in the telling' Lisa Jewell 'At once epic and intimate . . . A delightful novel' Jess Walter 'This beautiful, sweeping historical epic paints an exquisite portrait of love, loss, the ravages of time and the price a family pays for its secrets. Brava! Kristin Hannah 'Beautifully written, immersive . . . Sweeps you up and takes you on an epic journey. A must-read for 2022' Sarah Pearse 'An exquisite gem of a novel. No one does historical fiction better than Trigiani' David Baldacci 'This is a sweeping story of the complexities of love and family . . . A beautiful historical romance, this book manages to be epic and intimate at the same time' Sun

The Angelini Shoe Company, one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village, has been making exquisite wedding shoes since 1903 but now teeters on the brink of financial collapse. To save their business from ruin, thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli--apprentice to and granddaughter of master artisan Teodora Angelini--must bring the family's old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century. Juggling her budding romance with dashing chef Roman Falconi, her duty to her family, and a design challenge presented by a prestigious department store, Valentine returns to Italy with her grandmother in a quest to build a pair of glorious shoes to beat their rivals. And in the course of discovering her true artistic voice and so much more in la bella Italia, Valentine will be turning her life and the business upside down in ways she never expected.

'One of my all-time favourite novels' WHOOPI GOLDBERG 'Funny, charming and original' FANNIE FLAGG, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe How do you face the future when the past won't let you go? Big Stone Gap is a sleepy village where kids get married and start families at eighteen, and stay for ever. So thirty-five-year old Ave Maria Mulligan is something of an oddity. A self-proclaimed spinster, as the local pharmacist she's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years. Now Ave Maria is about to discover a scandal in her own family's past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life. Soon she's juggling two unexpected marriage proposals and conducting a no-holds-barred family feud. The thought of spending the rest of her life in Big Stone Gap is suddenly overwhelming . . . The ultimate Small Town American novel from the bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Praise for the BIG STONE GAP series: 'Hilarious and romantic. I couldn't put it down' SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'One of my all-time favourite novels' WHOOPI GOLDBERG 'If you love curling up with charming tales of small towns and quirky characters, switch off with this' COSMOPOLITAN 'Delightfully quirky' PEOPLE 'As comforting as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Utterly addictive' GLAMOUR 'As quirky and charming as her first novel. If you are not a fan already, you will be after this' COMPANY 'Honest, wholesome entertainment with a spicy Deep South kick' DAILY MAIL 'As warm and sweet as Southern Comfort' ELLE

'This book will give even the greyest of Mondays a sheen of glamour' Heat THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Los Angeles, 1935. Loretta Young meets Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild. Though he's already married, Gable falls for the stunning and vivacious young actress instantly. Far from the glittering lights of Hollywood, Sister Alda Ducci has been forced to leave her convent. Becoming Loretta's secretary, the innocent and pious young Alda must navigate the wild terrain of Hollywood with fierce determination and a moral code that derives from her Italian roots. Over the course of decades, Alda and Loretta forge an enduring bond of love and loyalty. But it will be put to the test when they face the greatest obstacle of their lives. As thrilling and beguiling as Hollywood itself, All the Stars in the Heavens brings together a magnificent cast of characters, real and imagined, in the rich landscape of Hollywood's Golden Age, where artisans flocked to pursue the ultimate dream: to tell stories on the silver screen. 'Impossible to put down' OK! 'The characters are glamorous yet believable and the plot rattles along at a satisfying pace. Suffice to say, your reviewer sat up until the early hours of the morning to finish it because she couldn't put it down!' My Weekly 'Trigiani re-creates the golden age of Hollywood with the same rich, sumptuous detail that distinguished The Shoemaker's Wife. Her ability to breathe life into the luminous cast of characters will captivate readers, then have them scouring Netflix for film classics of the 1930s. A tinsel-trimmed treat' Library Journal 'Trigiani spins a tale of star-crossed lovers... A heartwarming tale of women's lives behind the movies' Kirkus Reviews 'A thoroughly entertaining tale that brings Hollywood's golden age alive' People

I'm marooned.
Abandoned.
Left to rot in boarding school . . .

There are four reasons why Viola Chesterton knows she'll never survive her first year at Prefect Academy: Her parents have heartlessly dropped her there against her will She has to leave behind her Best Friend Forever And Always, Andrew . . . and replace him with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there "There" is South Bend, Indiana--Sherbet-Colored Sweater Capital of the World and about as far away from her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, as you can get

At least she has her video camera and her dreams of being a filmmaker to keep her busy. But boarding school, and her roommates, and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life. But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in.

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** THE SWEEPING, SUN-DRENCHED STORY OF LOVE, FAMILY AND UNTOLD SECRETS SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF WWII, FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER 'Adriana is a storyteller second to none' HEATHER MORRIS, bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz'Trigiani never fails to sweep you away . . . an emotional and beautiful tale of family, love, and loss' TAYLOR JENKINS REID, bestselling author of Malibu Rising'There is a reason Adriana Trigiani is so beloved by her millions of devoted readers . . . gorgeous' SARAH JESSICA PARKER'A big, beautiful, wonderful book; romantic, moving, transporting, affecting I will do everything I can to encourage everyone to read it' LOUISE DOUGLAS, bestselling author of The House by the Sea_________ Domenica Cabrelli had two great loves of her life. The first, her childhood sweetheart: a boy from the same small, sun-drenched Italian town of Viareggio. A romance born out of yearning and shared history. Then, on an idyllic French coastline in the shadow of war, Domenica's second great love affair: a mysterious captain, with a future on the front line. Many decades later, as her daughter, Matelda, starts to unpack her mother's legacy, she realises there is much Domenica left untold. About what kept her away from Italy for so long. What ultimately brought her home again. And the secret that bound her two great loves together . . ._________ 'An unforgettable historical epic. This rich family story is magnificent in the telling' Lisa Jewell 'At once epic and intimate . . . A delightful novel' Jess Walter 'This beautiful, sweeping historical epic paints an exquisite portrait of love, loss, the ravages of time and the price a family pays for its secrets. Brava! Kristin Hannah 'Beautifully written, immersive . . . Sweeps you up and takes you on an epic journey. A must-read for 2022' Sarah Pearse 'An exquisite gem of a novel. No one does historical fiction better than Trigiani' David Baldacci 'This is a sweeping story of the complexities of love and family . . . A beautiful historical romance, this book manages to be epic and intimate at the same time' Sun

I am in the midst of a conundrum.

Viola is finally where she belongs--back home in Brooklyn, where there are no khakis or sherbet-colored sweaters and people actually think her yellow flats are cool. But her best friend, Andrew, has started acting weird around her, and a new boyfriend has her friend Caitlin ditching her every chance she gets. Although Viola gets an internship on a Broadway show, nothing else is going as planned. When her roommates from Prefect Academy show up for a visit, Viola starts to wonder--is Brooklyn where she wants to stay? And when a tragic event shakes everyone's world, Viola realizes it's not where she belongs that matters--it's who she's with that really counts.

In this heartwarming follow-up to bestselling author Adriana Trigiani's teen debut, Viola in Reel Life, Viola just may be ready to get out from behind her trusty video camera and take the starring role in her own life.

As devoted readers of Adriana Trigiani's New York Times bestselling novels know, this "seemingly effortless storyteller" (Boston Globe) frequently draws inspiration from her own family history, in particular from the lives of her two remarkable grandmothers, Lucia Spada Bonicelli (Lucy) and Yolanda Perin Trigiani (Viola). In Don't Sing at the Table, she reveals how her grandmothers' simple values have shaped her own life, sharing the experiences, humor, and wisdom of her beloved mentors to delight readers of all ages.

Trigiani visits the past to seek answers to the essential questions that define the challenges women face today at work and at home. Don't Sing at the Table is a primer, grandmother to granddaughter, filled with everyday wisdom and life lessons handed down with care and built to last.

BIG CHERRY HOLLER, the extraordinary sequel to BIG STONE GAP, takes us back to the mountain life that enchanted us in Adriana Trigiani’s best selling debut novel. It’s been eight years since the town pharmacist and long time spinster Ave Maria Mulligan married coal miner Jack MacChesney. With her new found belief in love and its possibilities, Ave Maria makes a life for herself and her growing family, hoping that her fearless leap into commitment will make happiness stay. What she didn’t count on was that fate, life, and the ghosts of the past would come to haunt her and, eventually, test the love she has for her husband. The mountain walls that have protected her all of her life can not spare Ave Maria the life lessons she must learn.

BIG CHERRY HOLLER is the story of a marriage, revealing the deep secrets, the power struggle, the betrayal and the unmet expectations that exist between husband and wife. It is the story of a community that must reinvent itself as it comes to grips with the decline of the coal mining industry. It is the story of an extended family, the people of Big Stone Gap, who are there for one another especially when times are tough—including bookmobile librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, and Rescue Squad captain Spec Broadwater, who faces the complications of his double life. Ave Maria’s best friend Theodore Tipton, now band director at the University of Tennessee, continues to be her chief counselor and conscience as he reaches the pinnacle of marching band success.

When Ave Maria takes her daughter to Italy for the summer, she meets a handsome stranger who offers her a life beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ave Maria is forced to confront what is truly important: to her, to her marriage, and to her family. Brimming with humor, wisdom, honesty, and the drama and local color of mountain life from Virginia to Italy, BIG CHERRY HOLLER is a deeply felt, brilliantly evoked story of two lovers who have lost their way and their struggle to find one another again.


From the Hardcover edition.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the tiny town of Big Stone Gap is home to some of the most charming eccentrics in the state. Ave Maria Mulligan is the town's self-proclaimed spinster, a thirty-five year old pharmacist with a "mountain girl's body and a flat behind." She lives an amiable life with good friends and lots of hobbies until the fateful day in 1978 when she suddenly discovers that she's not who she always thought she was. Before she can blink, Ave's fielding marriage proposals, fighting off greedy family members, organizing a celebration for visiting celebrities, and planning the trip of a lifetime—a trip that could change her view of the world and her own place in it forever. Brimming with humor and wise notions of small-town life, Big Stone Gap is a gem of a book with a giant heart. . . .

'Utterly addictive' GLAMOUR If home is where the heart is, what happens when yours is torn in two? Big Stone Gap is a sleepy village where people can go their whole lives without leaving. It's been the home of Ave Maria and her family for generations, but with her daughter now married and living in Italy, Ave realises it's time to go in search of a new dream. Yet before her journey can begin, her life is turned upside down. As a lifelong friendship falls apart and an unexpected health crisis threatens her family, Ave Maria's world is shaken. And when a mysterious stranger comes to town and reveals a long-buried secret, she realises that in order to move forward with her life, first she must face up to the past . . . The fourth in the bestselling and much-loved BIG STONE GAP series from the bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick Praise for the BIG STONE GAP series: 'Hilarious and romantic. I couldn't put it down' SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'One of my all-time favourite novels' WHOOPI GOLDBERG 'If you love curling up with charming tales of small towns and quirky characters, switch off with this' COSMOPOLITAN 'Delightfully quirky' PEOPLE 'As comforting as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Utterly addictive' GLAMOUR 'As quirky and charming as her first novel. If you are not a fan already, you will be after this' COMPANY 'Honest, wholesome entertainment with a spicy Deep South kick' DAILY MAIL 'As warm and sweet as Southern Comfort' ELLE

'Trigiani is a wonderful storyteller... Readers will enjoy Big Cherry Holler immensely' USA TODAY How do you move forward if you’ve already lost your way?   It's been eight years since town pharmacist and self-proclaimed spinster Ave Maria Mulligan married Jack McChesney. Now they have a beautiful daughter, but for some reason Jack has never seemed so distant. In the old stone house nestled in the mountains, there’s an empty room where their son once slept, and a sadness that neither Ave nor Jack can discuss. But in Big Stone Gap itself, change is in the air, and not everyone feels it’s for the good. As Ave makes big decisions about the future of her family, will she and her husband be able to find their way back to each other before it’s too late? The extraordinary sequel to Big Stone Gap from the bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Praise for the BIG STONE GAP series: 'Hilarious and romantic. I couldn’t put it down’ SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'One of my all-time favourite novels' WHOOPI GOLDBERG ‘If you love curling up with charming tales of small towns and quirky characters, switch off with this’ COSMOPOLITAN 'Delightfully quirky' PEOPLE 'As comforting as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Utterly addictive' GLAMOUR 'As quirky and charming as her first novel. If you are not a fan already, you will be after this' COMPANY 'Honest, wholesome entertainment with a spicy Deep South kick' DAILY MAIL 'As warm and sweet as Southern Comfort' ELLE

'Delightful' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY   Can she find it in her heart to let go before it’s too late? As her daughter grows up, Ave Maria can’t help but feel time is slipping through her fingers. Her friends in Big Stone Gap are going through major life changes, too, and her husband seems desperate to reinvent himself in ways nobody could have predicted. Reaching into the past to find answers to the present, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and as people enter her life and rock the foundation, Ave Maria faces the true test of love: letting go. The third in the bestselling and much-loved BIG STONE GAP series from the bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick   Praise for the BIG STONE GAP series: 'Hilarious and romantic. I couldn’t put it down’ SARAH JESSICA PARKER 'One of my all-time favourite novels' WHOOPI GOLDBERG ‘If you love curling up with charming tales of small towns and quirky characters, switch off with this’ COSMOPOLITAN 'Delightfully quirky' PEOPLE 'As comforting as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Utterly addictive' GLAMOUR 'As quirky and charming as her first novel. If you are not a fan already, you will be after this' COMPANY 'Honest, wholesome entertainment with a spicy Deep South kick' DAILY MAIL 'As warm and sweet as Southern Comfort' ELLE

The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in villages just a few miles apart. At the turn of the last century, when Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished from his village and sent to hide in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy. Without explanation, he leaves a bereft Enza behind. Soon, Enza's family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America with her father to secure their future.

Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America, Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job in Hoboken until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza, determined to forge a life without him, begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House that will sweep her into the glamorous salons of Manhattan and into the life of the international singing sensation, Enrico Caruso.

From the stately mansions of Carnegie Hill, to the cobblestone streets of Little Italy, over the perilous cliffs of northern Italy, to the white-capped lakes of northern Minnesota, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever.

Lush and evocative, told in tantalizing detail and enriched with lovable, unforgettable characters, The Shoemaker's Wife is a portrait of the times, the places and the people who defined the immigrant experience, claiming their portion of the American dream with ambition and resolve, cutting it to fit their needs like the finest Italian silk.

This riveting historical epic of love and family, war and loss, risk and destiny is the novel Adriana Trigiani was born to write, one inspired by her own family history and the love of tradition that has propelled her body of bestselling novels to international acclaim. Like Lucia, Lucia, The Shoemaker's Wife defines an era with clarity and splendor, with operatic scope and a vivid cast of characters who will live on in the imaginations of readers for years to come.

Known and loved around the world for her sweeping Big Stone Gap trilogy and the instant "New York Times" bestseller Lucia, Lucia, Adriana Trigiani returns to the charm and drama of small-town life with Queens of the Big Time. This heartfelt story of the limits and power of love chronicles the remarkable lives of the Castellucas, an Italian-American family, over the course of three generations.
In the late 1800s, the residents of a small village in the Bari region of Italy, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, made a mass migration to the promised land of America. They settled in Roseto, Pennsylvania, and re-created their former lives in their new home-down to the very last detail of who lived next door to whom. The village's annual celebration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel-or "the Big Time," as the occasion is called by the young women who compete to be the pageant's Queen-is the centerpiece of Roseto's colorful old-world tradition.
The industrious Castellucas farm the land outside Roseto. Nella, the middle daughter of five, aspires to a genteel life "in town," far from the rigors of farm life, which have taken a toll on her mother and forced her father to take extra work in the slate quarries to make ends meet. But Nella's dreams of making her own fortune shift when she meets Renato Lanzara, the son of a prominent Roseto family. Renato is a worldly, handsome, devil-may-care poet who has a way with words that makes him irresistible. Their friendship ignites into a fiery romance that Nella is certain will lead to marriage. But Nella is not alone in her pursuit: every girl in town seems to want Renato. When he disappears without explanation, Nella is left with a shattered heart. Four years later, Renato's sudden return to Roseto the night before Nella's wedding to the steadfast Franco Zollerano leaves her and the Castelluca family shaken. For although Renato has chosen a path very different from Nella's, they are fated to live and work in Roseto, where the past hangs over them like a brewing storm.
An epic of small-town life, etched in glorious detail in the trademark Trigiani style, The Queen of the Big Time is the story of a determined, passionate woman who can never forget her first love.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Millions of readers around the world have fallen in love with the novels of the New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. In" Home to Big Stone Gap," she tells her most powerful story yet, full of humor and heart, wisdom and hope.
Nestled in the lush Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the town of Big Stone Gap has been home for Ave Maria Mulligan Machesney and her family for generations. She's been married to her beloved Jack for nearly twenty years, raised one child and buried another, and run a business that binds her community together, all while holding her tight circle of family and friends close.
But with her daughter, Etta, having flown the nest to enchanting Italy, Ave Maria has reached a turning point. When a friend's postcard arrives with the message "It's time to live your life for you," Ave Maria realizes that it's time to go in search of brand-new dreams. But before she can put her foot on the path, her life is turned upside down.
Ave Maria agrees to helm the town musical, a hilarious reunion of local talent past and present. A lifelong friendship collapses when a mysterious stranger comes to town and reveals a long-buried secret. An unexpected health crisis threatens her family. An old heartthrob reappears, challenging her marriage and offering a way out of her troubles. An opportunistic coal company comes to town and threatens to undermine the town's way of life and the mountain landscape Ave Maria has treasured since she was a girl. Now she has no choice but to reinvent her world, her life, and herself, whether she wants to or not.
Trigiani is at her best in this exquisite page-turner. "Home to Big Stone Gap" is an emotional and unforgettable journey that reminds us that you can go home again and again.
From "BOOKLIST"
*STAR* Trigiani, Adriana. Home to Big Stone Gap. Nov. 2006. 301p. Random, $25.95 (1-4000-6008-7).
Tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is Big Stone Gap, the bucolic backdrop for Trigiani's popular series. In this fourth entry, Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney and her husband, Jack, must come to terms with the absence of daughter Etta, newly married and living in Italy. (The country holds a special place in Ave Maria's heart: her biological father, Mario, whom she learned of and met only after her mother's death, is Italian). Ave Maria has plenty to keep her mind off missing her only child (the MacChesney's son, Joe, died of leukemia at age four). She's a full-time pharmacist and the newly appointed director of the town's annual musical. Then comes news that her longtime friend, glamorous librarian Iva Lou, has been keeping a startling secret for nearly 20 years. Other developments, including a health scare for Jack and a Christmas visit from a colorful former resident, move the plot along briskly. With her original cast of characters, playwright and television writer Trigiani blends playfulness and pathos in this evocative portrait of a small southern town. Fans of the Big Stone Gap series can look forward to a feature film; Trigiani has written the screenplay and is slated to direct. -"Allison Block
""Is there ever trouble for Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney, heroine of Trigiani's beloved Big Stone Gap novels, starting with her married daughter's move to Italy and leading right up to a stranger's disturbing appearance in town."-"Library Journal"
Praise for the Big Stone Gap novels:
"Delightfully quirky . . . chock-full of engaging, oddball characters and unexpected plot twists."
-"People" (Book of the Week)
"Funny, charming, and original."
-Fannie Flagg
"Satisfying reading . . . As skillfully as Ms. Trigiani makes us laugh, she makes us cry."
-"Richmond Times-Dispatch"
"Heartwarming . . . Everything that really matters is here: humor, romance, wisdom, and drama."
-"The Dallas Morning News"

"From the Hardcover edition."