by Catherine Banner
Published July 12 2016 by Random House
Finished 10/23/16
Some will think me odd, but this is my favorite book cover this year! I think it's just gorgeous.
It turned out to be quite an enjoyable saga, and kudos to the audio narrator for making it so. Eduardo Ballerini's pacing and inflections often reminded me of Louise Penny's expert reader, the late Ralph Cosham, but with the occasional Italiano thrown in instead of French. So it made me want to sit back in a comfy chair with some vino or Limoncello and just enjoy.
This is the story of five generations of the Esposito family on a mythical island near Sicily. From WWI to present day, we fall in love with each member of the family. The house is first acquired by Amadeo and remodeled into a bar, a business venture which holds the family together for generations. The island itself undergoes major transformations, from its old fashioned ways into modernity as each generation matures and brings in automobiles, refrigeration, computers, modern banking, and the problems each carries. The bar keepers evolve as well, and I really liked Amadeo's daughter Maria Grazia most of all (sorry if misspelled; I haven't seen it written).
I did like the earlier years better than the modern ones, and that could be partly due to the length of the saga. In general, a book this long needs some mystery or plot twists to hold my interest. But it's not an exciting story, rather it's pretty docile, like the island. I could probably do well to listen to the last hour again since I found my mind wandering so much. But life's too short and other books beckon.
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