Publisher's Synopsis
Anna and Franco met in a fairly unremarkable way-an arranged marriage. What Anna will soon discover, though, is that the hand of providence has clearly guided the two of them together... ...and not even the coming Great Conflict can separate them. Anna and Franco Gennusa's love flourishes, and so does their family. And when Anna gives birth to their sixth and final daughter, Maria, the delivery is a difficult one... ...one that will ultimately become a turning point for the entire Gennusa family. Anna's days are occupied with the ongoing struggle to raise six girls in the sun-ripened Sicilian countryside, while her husband, Franco, works from sunrise to sunset farming the local olive groves. But devastation and suffering quickly become commonplace throughout the region and Italy soon becomes a darkened den of sorrow. The Gennusa's village would be no exception. The oldest of the Gennusa girls are forced to grow up in a dangerous world where tanks and soldiers terrify even the most peaceful of Sicilian towns. For Franco, though, his responsibility rests on providing dowries for his daughters, and his active involvement with the local Resistance Party. Despite their own challenging circumstances and the horrifying conditions that held their Italian home in bondage, the Gennusas are able to love and provide for their children at a time when hunger was a constant companion to many families. But the financial burdens of war, and Franco's search for peace at the bottom of an empty wine bottle, may be more dangerous than the garrison of German soldiers living nearby. Finally, in a desperate effort to flee, Franco packs up his family and moves them across the Atlantic Ocean in hopes to rebuild their lives in America's safe harbor of New York City. And later, after suffering a case of shipboard pneumonia, Franco's last selfless act is to free his family to follow their dreams in a new land...a new home.
