Vita - by Melania Mazzucco (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

In April 1903, Diamante, age twelve, and Vita, age nine, are sent by their poor families in southern Italy to make a life for themselves in America. Theirs is an unforgettable love story, a riveting tale of immigrant survival and hope that takes them from the crime-ridden tenements of Little Italy to the brutal rail yards of the Midwest, on paths that cross with the Black Hand, Caruso, and Chaplin. It is a story that reaches across decades, to the son of Vita, who would travel as far as Italy to find his roots and the man who could have been his father.

In Vita, the author, Melania G. Mazzucco, also tells her own story of how she found Diamante and Vita in old photographs, documents, ship manifests, and the fading memories of her relatives, and from these fragments of the past imagined this gripping epic fiction of her family's history.

Review Quotes

"Commanding and moving . . . Full of pungent fictional details." --The New Yorker

"A vibrant, richly detailed novel about the Italian immigration to America a century ago." --Elle

"Mazzucco's novel is about life in all its fullness and complexity, with all its anxieties and hopes and passions and betrayals. . . . She succinctly captures the essence of [the great Italian immigration], which involved not only heartache but also hope." --Newsday

"Mazzucco comes across as a supple stylist with a strong sensory gift. . . . Her narrative has an engaged intensity." --The New York Times Book Review

"Vita has the suspense of a thriller, the breadth and force of a family saga, and the complex depth of a dynamic meditation on the immigrant experience." --The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

About the Author

Melania G. Mazzucco was born in Rome in 1966. She earned a degree in Italian literature from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and a degree in cinema from the Experimental Center for Cinematography. In addition to her four novels, she has written award-winning works for the cinema, theater, and radio. Vita was awarded the 2003 Strega Prize, Italy's leading literary award.