
This tale of a family in Little Italy is "a minor miracle . . . documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life" (Newsweek). On a 1950s September night so hot that the devout Catholics of Little Italy wonder if New York City has slipped...

This tale of a family in Little Italy is "a minor miracle . . . documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life" (Newsweek). On a 1950s September night so hot that the devout Catholics of Little Italy wonder if New York City has slipped...


Set in New York's Little Italy in the 1950s--a community closely knit by gossip and tradition--this is the story of an extraordinary family, the Santangelos. Prose] writes equally well about sausages and saints, documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life.--Jean...

"A marvelous, lovable novel." Joyce Maynard New York's Little Italy in the 1950s provides the setting for the extraordinary tale of the Santangelos. There is Joseph, a butcher who cheats at pinochle, only to find the deck stacked in unexpected ways; his mother, Mrs. Santangelo,...


Set in New York's Little Italy in the 1950s--a community closely knit by gossip and tradition--this is the story of an extraordinary family, the Santangelos. "[Prose] writes equally well about sausages and saints, documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life."--Jean...