Synopses & Reviews
It is 1953 in the tight-knit Italian neighborhood in Wilmington, Delaware. Maddalena Grasso has lost her country, her family, and the man she loved by coming to America; her mercurial husband, Antonio, has lost his opportunity to realize the American Dream; their new friend, Guilio Fabbri, a shy accordion player, has lost his beloved parents.
In the shadow of St. Anthony's Church, named for the patron saint of lost things, the prayers of these troubled but determined people are heard, and fate and circumstances conspire to answer them in unforeseeable ways.
With great authenticity and immediacy, The Saint of Lost Things evokes a bittersweet time in which the world seemed more intimate and knowable, and the American Dream simpler, nobler, and within reach.
Review
"Not exactly a big romantic finish, but those who appreciate clear-eyed, unsentimental fiction will find its realism fresh and moving." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Castellani skillfully captures the Italian immigrant experience at mid-20th century....his lovely, haunting, unhurried story will have readers clamoring for more." Library Journal
Review
"Beautifully, and movingly, Castellani shows an uncanny empathy for the American immigrant experience." Julia Glass, author of The Three Junes
Review
"A lovely novel filled with characters so fully realized that they...leave the fog of their breath on the page." Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies
Synopsis
With great authenticity and immediacy, Castellani evokes a bittersweet time in which the world seemed more intimate and knowable, and the American Dream simpler, nobler, and within reach.
About the Author
Christopher Castellani is the author of A Kiss from Maddalena, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Best Work of Fiction and was a Book Sense Top Ten pick in hardcover and in paperback, a national selection of the Readers Club of America, a Barnes & Noble Online Book Club pick, and a Borders Original Voices selection. A graduate of Swarthmore College with an M.F.A. from Boston University, he is the head instructor at Grub Street, a nonprofit creative writing center. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.