The story begins when ten year-old Ciro and his brother, eleven year-old Eduardo were taken to St. Nicola Convent by their widowed mother, Caterina Lazzari. The boys’ stay at the convent was believed to be temporary. Caterina had recently lost her husband in a mining accident in Minnesota. It is the early 1900s and Caterina and her two sons had lived in Vilminore di Scalve, the Lombardy region of Italy. Although Caterina was from the affluent Montini family, with her own parents deceased, she seemed to have no options available.

Both Lazzari boys loved one another, were principled, and personified honor and integrity.

Eduardo, the logic, was much admired as a scholar. He found solace in reading, tucked away in their room, after transcribing mass services for the priest. Eduardo understood his mother’s emotions, and accepted her reason for temporarily leaving them at the convent.

As a young child, clever, candid, and feisty, Ciro had a terrific sense of humor. He knew how to gain the nuns adoration with wittiness and hard work. Yet he experienced, profound, chronic depression at the loss of his father, and what he believed abandonment by his mother. I think this defining event in his young life would make him wary of commitment, even when love stood in the foreground.

At fifteen, a fearless Ciro exposed St. Nicola’s pedophile priest, making out with Ciro’s heart throb. But the consequences of the exposure shattered Ciro and his brother’s safe, stable home life. The priest had the authority to banish them from the convent. So, while Ciro had gone to the mountainous region of Schilpario to bury the Ravanelli family’s youngest daughter, Stella Ravanelli, the priest mandated Ciro be sent to a reform school and Eduardo sent to a seminary in Rome.

Ciro first met fifteen year-old, bereaved, Enza Ravinelli, the eldest daughter, in the cemetery, while he dug her sister’s grave. She had arrived to place a wreath on the grave.

Ciro listened to Enza as she expressed her feelings and the family’s powerlessness and helplessness at their sudden loss. Ciro understood her emotions. He had experienced loss too.

Enza appeared to be serious beyond her years. She had taken care of her five siblings, and was loyal, strong-minded, and had gutsy perseverance. She felt guilt-ridden that she discovered her sister’s illness that led to her demise.

With sudden wisdom beyond his years, Ciro said to Enza: “Maybe you shouldn’t blame yourself, but accept that this is your sister’s story, and the ending belongs to her.” He took Enza in his arms and kissed her. Ciro and Enza’s connection seemed instantaneous. He added: “If you look around to find meaning in everything that happens, you will end up disappointed.” This was wise, but not unusual, utterances from a fifteen year-old boy

Unfortunately, when Ciro returned to the convent, he discovered he and Eduardo no longer had a home. Eduardo welcomed his future as a priest and Ciro, who was not much for prayer or belief, did not understand his brother’s acceptance of the priesthood. Ciro was emotionally connected to his brother and Sister Teresa, who acted as his surrogate mother. He doubted if he’d ever see his mother again.

Nuns, Sisters Teresa and Ercolina, assured Ciro he would not go to reform school. Through one of the nuns, they quietly plotted and secured Remo and Maria Zanetti as sponsors, a home and shoemaker’s apprenticeship for Ciro in New York City.

Upon his arrival in New York, Ciro made a lifetime friendship with fellow immigrant, Luigi Latini.

A year later, Ciro and Enza met again by chance in St. Vincent Hospital’s chapel, in New York. She had fallen ill on the nine day journey to America, and was hospitalized upon arrival in New York. Her father, Marco, had accompanied her. The two planned to work long enough to purchase land to build their own home in Schilpario. Ciro had cut himself on the lathe in the shoe shop where he worked, was seen in Emergency, and then went with the Zanetti’s, to pray in the chapel.

It was an awkward second meeting for Enza and Ciro. His girlfriend, native New Yorker, Felicità, showed up at the hospital.

Enza’s father, Marco, travelled to Pennsylvania, to work in the mines. After her hospitalization, Enza moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, with the Buffo’s, her mother’s third cousin; a family that verbally abused and took advantage of her. Enza not only worked long hours in a New Jersey factory as a seamstress, but was expected to be the Buffo’s maid, laundress and cook. Enza’s best friend, Laura Heely, also a seamstress, wanted to move to New York City.

Ciro hadn’t written Enza and had already moved on, with his girlfriend, Felicità. Yet when Ciro and Enza met the third time, a year later, at Christopher Columbus’s holiday celebration, in Little Italy, sadly, he was still with Felicità.

At that time, Ciro saw Enza as more beautiful. She appeared poised and polished, and as a seamstress, her apparel was stylish. In Enza’s eyes, Ciro, whom she believed the most handsome man ever, had an air of sophistication about him in his dress and manner. They were two young people from the mountains of Italy, who had proved their mettle before arriving. They had survived and became part of the sparkle and energy of New York.

Enza loved Ciro deeply. She was unafraid to communicate her feelings to him. Tired of his relationship with his girlfriend, Ciro wanted a new start; a relationship with Enza. Both shared similarities and commitments to their love for family and home.

Ciro promised to visit Enza at her home in Hoboken, but didn’t arrive when promised. In the meantime, Enza, disappointed, had moved to New York City with her friend, Laura. When he did arrive at the Buffo’s, Mrs. Buffo was deceptive in her answer as to where Enza had gone.

When Ciro saw Enza again, at twenty-two, she was a sophisticated New Yorker, in love with someone else.

The relationship between Ciro and Enza seems thwarted by bad luck, but all is not lost.

This is a very good book, well written, has good description, with characters meticulously fleshed out, interesting historical sites concerning the Lombardy region of Italy, the immigrants in New York around the turn of the century, and the Metropolitan Opera House, where Enza and Laura worked.

Luigi Latini returned home to Italy with his teenaged sons around the time Germany had entered Italy, during World War II. I thought something would be written concerning their safety, especially with them having lived in America.

Unfortunately, Caterina had not coped with or moved beyond her suffering. She did not recover and renew her relationship with her boys while they were young. The disruption and separation was deeply felt by Ciro even into adulthood. I wanted to know what really happened concerning the Lazzari’s home or property. Did Caterina’s in-laws have something to do with their homelessness, or her own siblings have something to do with her parents’ property? Usually, during that era, sons (Montini’s) would be given possession of property. I thought this would be discussed by Caterina when Ciro and Eduardo visited her as adults.

Omens were mentioned in the book. I wanted to know what a pink sun and blue sky meant. Concerning the chopped down tree in the Zanetti’s former home, I believe this saddened Ciro because it represented a loss or an end.

I gave this book four stars.

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Rating	4.3 (15975 ratings)
Price	$10.5
Category	Anthologies

The Shoemaker's Wife: A Novel