Families in Fiction

Castellamare is an island far enough away from the mainland to be forgotten, but not far enough to escape from the world’s troubles. At the center of the island’s life is a café draped with bougainvillea called the House at the Edge of Night, where the community gathers to gossip and talk. Amedeo Esposito, a foundling from Florence, finds his destiny on the island with his beautiful wife, Pina, whose fierce intelligence, grace, and unwavering love guide her every move.

Key Takeaways:

• This grand chronicle of four generations of an Italian family living on a tiny island off the coast of Sicily begins with no family.
• In this impressively paced tale, Banner sets episodes of sexual intrigue, inter generational feuding and all-but-feral children tamed by sugared ricotta against nearly a century of Western history, from the Great War to the Great Recession.
• As an adult, he lands on equally forsaken Castellamare, a low and brooding thing on the horizon, no more than a rock on the water.

“This grand chronicle of four generations of an Italian family living on a tiny island off the coast of Sicily begins with no family. A foundling, dropped at a mainland hospital, is soon christened Amedeo Esposito (the surname means “abandoned”).”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/books/review/families-in-fiction.html