Patron Recommendation: The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

shoemakers wifeAbout the book:
“High in the Italian Alps at the turn of the twentieth century, Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, meets Enza, a practical beauty. But when scandal rocks Ciro’s tiny village, unbeknownst to Enza, he is sent to hide in America. When disaster strikes Enza’s family, she, too, is forced to go to America.

Ciro and Enza build fledgling lives—until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza finds success in the costume department of the Metropolitan Opera House. Over time, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until the power of their love changes both of their lives forever.

Inspired by Trigiani’s own family history, The Shoemaker’s Wife defines an era with operatic scope that will live on in the imagina-tions of readers for years to come.”

The patron said:

This book was incredible. My book club is reading it, and they all love it.

If you’ve already read The Shoemaker’s Wife, try one of these:

  • The Immigrants by Howard Fast
    “Quick to ascend from the tragic depths of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Dan Lavette becomes the head of a powerful shipping empire and establishes himself among the city’s cultural elite. But when he finds himself caught in a loveless marriage to the daughter of San Francisco’s richest family, a scandalous love affair threatens to destroy the empire Dan has built for himself.”
  • Fair Warning by Robert Olen Butler
    “At age forty, Amy is the company’s star employee – capable of selling a Renoir painting of a pudgy nude for twice its value. Hers are the charms and talents of a sophisticated woman: intelligence, ambition, wit, and endless charisma. Her customers, meanwhile, are intoxicated by a love for the objects that define them, and thrilled by the act of making them their own. And sometimes, such as when the dark and mysterious Trevor locks eyes with Amy as she closes an auction with ‘fair warning,’ that object is Amy herself. Trevor is Amy’s most hopeful romantic prospect in months, but is there something unsettling in his smile?” For years Amy has fought a smothering mother, a suburban sister whose marriage Amy struggles to respect, a late father who never forgave her for abandoning the cattle business in Texas, and the ghosts of doomed relationships. Now Amy wonders whether she has finally found true love in the form of Alain Bouchard, the suave and worldly French business mogul who will be her new boss. When he promises to make her a partner and whisk her away to his beloved Paris, it all seems picture perfect, until unsettling signs appear. Is Alain any different from Amy’s alienated clients – connoisseurs who lose touch with the very things they pursue?”

[Links lead to NOBLE catalog listing for that title.]

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