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.

"Sin, redemption, shame and grace are served up in Romano's uneven debut novel, set in Chicago's Italian neighborhoods in the late 1950s. Agostino and Angela Rosa Peccatori are recent immigrants, raising five children while running a tavern with Agostino's brother, Vince. But the Peccatoris' arranged marriage lacks communication and passion, and Angela silently endures her husband's infidelities. The couple's oldest son, Santo, grows increasingly aware of his father's indiscretions while his only sister, Victoria, flirts with truancy and with the neighborhood bad boy. The family's individual trajectories are thrown off course by a death in the family, which has ramifications that will shape the family for years afterward. But the back half of the book, with its secrets revealed and lives altered, packs fewer surprises than probably intended, and Romano's reflections on death and grief bring little new to the table. However, Romano finds a rich vein of material in a place and time buffeted by changing mores, insularity and tenuous ties to the old country. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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.

Italian-Americans Angelo Rosa and Agostino cling to their old ways. Their children agonize over becoming like their parents. But the younger generations struggle between tradition and assimilation is overshadowed as tragedy strikes, one that sends them on colliding and intersecting paths.

Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Tony Romano is a two-time winner of a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications and his stories have been produced for NPR's The Sound of Writing series. He lives near Chicago, Illinois.