Sacred Time: A Novel

The bestselling author of "Stones from the River" delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet — the unforgettable story of an endearing, but also flawed, Italian American family.

In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo's world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parents' Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium — and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm's family.

Malcolm is in jail for stealing — once again — from his last new job, and Anthony's aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos' fifth-floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony's life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member's life forever.

Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, "Sacred Time" spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family as well as its gracefulness, Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Ultimately she reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations. With gravity and poise, Hegi turns her astute yet forgiving eye on the essential frailty and dignity of the human condition in this elegant and fast-paced novel.

Evoking all the plenty and optimism of post-war America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. keenly observing the dark side of family--and its gracefulness--Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Ultimately she reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations.

Ursula Hegi is the author of Intrusions, Unearned Pleasures, Floating in My Mother's Palm, Stones from the River, Salt Dancers, Tearing the Silence, The Vision of Emma Blau, Hotel of the Saints, and Trudi & Pia. She lives with her husband in New York State.

Contents

Book One

Anthony 1953: Elsewhere

Leonora 1955: Annulments

Book Two

Floria 1975: At the Proper Hour

Belinda 1979: Ordinary Sins

Book Three

Floria 2001: The Weight of All That Was Never Brought Forward

Anthony 2002: Acts of Violence