Description
Book SynopsisLiving in Picinisco, Italy a er World War II brought enough societal challenges, never mind having to find the means to feed 19 other mouths. It is up to Mamma Matilda to make the needed sacrifices to ensure her family’s survival.
With another baby on the way and the older siblings looking towards their future, tension begins to seep through the cracks. Upholding tradition, during a time of Italian poverty, death and lack of opportunities, is fading further away in the children’s minds.
But Mamma Matilda will do what she must to protect what she loves the most – her family.
A fictional story inspired by a real gravestone inscription ‘An Exemplary Mother of Nineteen Children’, this book tells the story of struggling to support a large family, but the harsh realities one must face when it comes to deciding to follow your footsteps or continue down the path of tradition.
What truly is the importance of family? Does one’s dreams come before or after it? How would Mamma Matilda cope with an empty nest? In the end, it is family that has driven her all these years.
Trade ReviewPoignant but life-affirming ... Crolla clearly understands that she needs to strike a balance between idealising the Italian peasant way of life and acknowledging its hardship ... Her prose has a warmth and simplicity that complements its characters' lives, conveying an affection that could convince you she was writing about her own family, and an ambivalence that reflects their feelings about a land they love but are no longer certain has anything to offer its young. THE HERALD
A great document of a simpler life for so many Scottish Italians. A great read! GOODREADS USER on Domenica
You expose the human cost of war beyond the battlefield in a depiciton of love and grief, pain and union... It has allowed me to see more clearly where I come from. RICHARD DEMARCO on Serafina Crolla
