Synopses & Reviews
Perfectly evoking the sights and sounds of the summer of 1978 in Brooklyn, Suzanne Corso makes an acclaimed fiction debut with this powerful coming-of-age tale, told from an adult perspective, of family, best friends, first loves, and big dreams waiting to come true. . . . Samantha Bonti is fifteen years old, half Jewish and half Italian, and hesitantly edging toward pure Brooklyn. She lives in Bensonhurst with her mother, Joan, a woman poisoned with cynicism and shackled by addictions; and with her Grandma Ruth, Samantha’s loudest and most opinionated source of encouragement. As flawed as they are, they are family. And this is home—a tight-knit community of ancestors and traditions, of controlling mobsters, compliant wives, and charismatic young guys willing to engage in anything illegal to get a shot at playing with the big boys. Yet Samantha has something that even her most simpatico girlfriend, Janice Caputo, doesn’t share—a desire to become a writer and to escape their insular, overcrowded little world and the destiny that is assumed for all of them.
Then comes Tony Kroon. He’s a gorgeous mobster wannabe, a Bensonhurst Adonis whose seductive charms Samantha finds irresistible—even when she knows she’s too smart to fall this deep . . . but Samantha soon finds herself swallowed up by dangerous circumstances that threaten to jeopardize more than her dreams. Grandma Ruth’s advice: Samantha had better write herself out of this story and into a new one, fast.
Review
“Corso gets the Brooklyn dialect pitch-perfect and keeps the pace brisk....The universal story of longing, loyalty, and growing up rings true.”
-Publishers Weekly
Review
"This is a wonderful and moving nostalgia trip. Corso is a gifted and sensitive writer, and her debut novel is straight from the heart."
--Nelson DeMille
Synopsis
From Suzanne Corso, a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl growing up in 1970s Brooklyn who falls in love with a handsome aspiring mobster.
Synopsis
Now in paperback, a dazzling coming-of-age debut about a teenage girl growing up in 1970s Brooklyn who falls in love with a handsome aspiring mobster—inspired by the author’s life and soon to be a movie.
It’s the summer of 1978, and Samantha Bonti is fifteen years old, half Jewish and half Italian, living in Bensonhurst with her mother, Joan, a woman scarred by a ruinous marriage, poisoned with cynicism, and shackled by addictions; and with her Grandma Ruth, Samantha’s loudest source of encouragement. As flawed as they are, they are family.
In this close-knit community of ancestors and traditions, Samantha develops a desire to become a writer and to escape the destiny that is assumed for all of them in the outer reaches of Bensonhurst. And it’s to be had just across the Brooklyn Bridge. Then comes Tony Kroon.
Older than Samantha, Tony is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, half-Sicilian, half-Dutch mobster wannabe. Almost immediately, Samantha is falling in love, even when she’s warned never to ask questions of Tony’s life. Even when her family and friends tell her to stay away. Unable to resist Tony’s seductive charms, Samantha soon finds herself swallowed up by dangerous circumstances that threaten to jeopardize more than her dreams. Told from the adult perspective, this is a powerful, true-to-life novel of leaving the past to history and the future to fate—of restoring hope where there was none, and reaching for dreams in an inspiring promise of paradise called Manhattan.
About the Author
Suzanne Corzo is the author of two feature film screenplays, has produced two documentaries, and written one children’s book. She was chosen as one of USA TODAY's “New Voices of 2011” for her debut novel, A Brooklyn Story. She currently lives in New York City.