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    When the World Was Young: A Novel
    Unavailable
    When the World Was Young: A Novel
    Unavailable
    When the World Was Young: A Novel
    Ebook356 pages9 hours

    When the World Was Young: A Novel

    By Tony Romano

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    It's the summer of 1957. In the heart of Chicago, first-generation Italian immigrants Angela Rosa and Agostino Peccatori are caught between worlds. Far from home and with five children born in the United States, the Peccatori family is left clinging to old country ways in an era of upending change. While Agostino spends his days running the neighborhood trattoria, Mio Fratello, Angela Rosa must face the building tension at home as her children struggle to define themselves within a family rooted in tradition. When Agostino's wandering eye can no longer be ignored, and lingering questions of fidelity and responsibility invade the Peccatoris' intimate world, the pressure to keep the family together mounts.

    Just as it seems the Peccatoris' stoic foundation and resilient spirit are enough to withstand the family friction, the events of a single tragic evening bring all their lives to a sudden and irreversible standstill. Haunted by overwhelming loss, and drowning in years of secrets and deception, the family begins to unravel under the burden of guilt. As the Peccatori children move into adulthood, alienated from one another by grief and the complexity of their adolescence, their ties of kinship are put to the ultimate test.

    Bound together by blood yet indelibly marked by loss, the Peccatori family becomes a testament to the power of sacrifice, loyalty, and unconditional love. Told through alternating voices and beautifully crafted prose, When the World Was Young is a stunning, poignant tale of one family's will to survive.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061756016
    Unavailable
    When the World Was Young: A Novel
    Author

    Tony Romano

    Tony Romano is the author of When the World Was Young and a two-time winner of a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. His work has been produced on National Public Radio's Sound of Writing series and syndicated to newspapers nationwide.

    Read more from Tony Romano

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    Reviews for When the World Was Young

    3.5/5

    16 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I found this book compelling and, in the end, an affirmation of the importance of family. The Peccatori children are traversing the difficult middle ground between their parent’s old world Italian lifestyle and the American inner city in which they live. It’s a familiar dilemma for children of immigrants no matter what the ethnicity. The main part of the story occurs over the space of about two years in the late 1950’s. The oldest child, Santo, has just finished high school when the book opens. His sister, Victoria, is sixteen and a lot more interested in boys than in school. Then there are the two boys, Alfredo and Anthony, who are so close in age many people take them for twins. The infant son, Benito, who died in the summer of 1957, should have been the last child since his birth was very difficult. Another child, Nicholas, who was born after Benito’s death, introduces the book by talking about Benito and how his death transformed the family. This book also raises the question of when is it right to conceal the truth and when should the truth be told no matter how difficult it is to do so. I don’t want to spoil the ending but I have to say that I think there is one secret that is kept too long. I hope Tony Romano has more books in him because I think his writing will only get better and since this book was very well written that is something to be anticipated.
    • 4/5
      Loved it! Wish it went on and on. Loved the unexpected twist, but none of them were too unrealistic. It could have been any family in this story. At times, I felt like it was my own! The ending was worth reading through all the background information at the beginning. Everything came together by the middle and the story stayed interesting until the end. The issues were very easy to relate to. It was also easy to fall in love with the characters even through there troubled times.
    • 4/5
      Sure handed writing and Italian-American family secrets made this really a joy to read.