The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
Page 44
Author’s Note
THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS of Stella Fortuna is a work of fiction, but for those interested in its historical inspirations, I will name just a few nonfiction resources and encourage the curious to seek them out: Ann Cornelisen’s work, particularly Women of the Shadows, is a useful outsider’s perspective on Mezzogiorno daily life in the mid–twentieth century. Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale’s La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience is a starting point for any inquiry into Italian American immigration and the emigrant identity. For those who would like to read more about Calabrian history, I recommend Gay Talese’s Unto the Sons, which also contains a rare detailed account of an Italian soldier’s Great War experience. Another illuminating book on the Great War in Italy is Mark Thompson’s The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919. I was fascinated (in a mostly unmagical sense) by a 1970 collection of essays about the Evil Eye edited by Clarence Maloney and published by Columbia University Press under the title The Evil Eye. A more complete reading list would go on for quite some time, so I’ll limit myself to naming just one more personal inspiration, Toni Morrison’s novel A Mercy, which elegantly frames the conversation about what people have been willing and forced to do in order to be American.
My inspirations were not only textual, and Stella Fortuna would not exist without the larger-than-life characters among my Italian-American relatives, or without the devoted caretakers of family traditions. I am deeply grateful to those who shared their memories so generously, especially John Cusano; Connie Rucci; the late Filomena Rotundo, who passed away just before I was able to show her this book; and above all my great aunt and precious friend Connie Sanelli. From the non-Italian side of my family, I owe sincere thanks to my paternal grandmother, Patricia Grames, for instilling in me the value of preserving family and local histories. For their tireless support of this project, loving thanks to Nancy and Paul Oliver and to all the Cusano ladies, especially Courtney, Lisa, Samantha, Gina, Eileen Sylvestre, and Karen Arsenault—I am proud to wear my red hat with you.
My most profound thanks to the entire village of Ievoli, which welcomed me with open arms during my research. Luigi Mascaro, the retired postino, and his wife, Caterina Gallo, took me into their home sight unseen, fed and pampered me, drove me all over Calabria, and educated me in the delights of the Calabrese proverb. Rina Scalise, the owner of Ievoli’s bar, was kindly forbearing as I spent long hours drinking her coffee and frowning at my notebook. Feroleto Antico municipio officer Francesca Mascaro and historian Franco Falvo were invaluable sources of comune history. I am grateful to many other Ievolitani and Sepinesi for sharing their lives and stories with me, including Nicola and Anna Mascaro; Marisa Mancuso; Angelina Fazio; Federico Gaetano; the Cusano-Maglieri clan, Mariangelo, Teresa, Walter, Mariteresa, and Martina; and my sweet friend the late Saverina Gallo. Thank you to Chiara Scaglioni for bringing Stella back home to Italy, and to Gioacchino Criaco for showing me new ways to think about Calabria. Finally, my most heartfelt gratitude to Francesca Fragale, whose friendship I was lucky to bumble into early in my research and whose advice on the subjects of Calabrese dialects, folk music, recipes, and local traditions cannot be overvalued.
At home in New York, I am deeply grateful for my “day” job coworkers at Soho Press. They are, without exaggeration, a second family, and have been great champions of this novel since its inception. First and foremost, sincere thanks to publisher Bronwen Hruska, whose patience, generosity, and flexibility made it possible for me to write this book. Special thanks are also due to Mark Doten, for much sage writing advice, and Dan Ehrenhaft, for introducing me to my agent. I am grateful to all my Soho colleagues, including Rudy Martinez, Janine Agro, Amara Hoshijo, Monica White, Steven Tran, Meredith Barnes, Abby Koski, and Alexa Wejko, for their many years of support, but in particular to Rachel Kowal, managing editor, who bent over backward so that I could take time away for writing and research.
For what they have taught me, consciously and unconsciously, about writing, storytelling, and life, I would like to thank all the authors I have been privileged to work with as an editor. For their furnished expertise during the writing of this book, specifically, my special thanks to Andromeda Romano-Lax, Francine Mathews, Timothy Hallinan, Lene Kaaberbøl, Stuart Neville, Mette Ivie Harrison, James Benn, Cara Black, Peter Lovesey, Ed Lin, Mick Herron, and Irene Levine. For their friendship, generosity, and sympathetic advice, I am deeply grateful for my writer-friends Sarah Weinman, Matt Bell, Chris Pavone, Mary Bly, Brando Skyhorse, and Rachel Cantor. For encouraging me to believe in the value of my work, my heartfelt gratitude to Joy Tutela, Rick Rofihe, and Beate Sigriddaughter. And as a source of inspiration I want to thank the Bay Ridge Bookmark writers: Bina Spano, who brought us together; Christine Freglette, who hosted us; and Joyce, Rosanne, Ellie, Lisa, Carol, Meghann, and all the ladies (and gent) who shared their stories, but particularly the late Ellen O’Rourke-Dominianni, the social fabric of the group, whose spirit lives on in many other writers.
I dedicate this paragraph to English teachers who have left a deep fingerprint on my heart and brain, which was all of them—Mutch, LeGeyt, Lewis, Graham, Rotondo, Hawlicheck, Devokaitis, Rogalski, Stetson, Marinelli, Robinson, Furniss, Archibald, Blix, Feldman. I hope if any of them happens to turn these pages they will know that their fingerprint is there, too. I light a verbal candle here in memory of the late great Mrs. Marie Miller. Her influence cannot be summed up in words, despite all the words she gave me, and many others.
Thank you to the entire team at Ecco and HarperCollins, who have been almost unrealistically wonderful to work with. My editor, Megan Lynch, VP & editorial director, is formidable, graceful, and relentlessly correct, and no author has ever been more fortunate than I in an editorial match. Thanks to publisher Daniel Halpern, a visionary under whose imprimatur I am honored to be published, and to Miriam Parker, Meghan Deans, and Sonya Cheuse, who made me feel like I was coming home when I signed my contract. For their tireless efforts on Stella’s behalf, my most sincere thanks to Sara Birmingham, Andrea Molitor, Allison Saltzman, Virginia Stanley, Kim Racon, Lainey Mays, Chris Connolly, Lillie Walsh, Kate Walker, Zachary Wagman, Ashlyn Edwards, Rachel Kaplan, Kim Paserchia, Renata De Oliveira, Emma Dries, Suzanne Mitchell, Scooter McCrae, Karen Gudmundson, Ian Doherty, Josh Marwell, Andy LeCount, Mary Beth Thomas, Ronnie Kutys, Casey Coughlin, Bethany Johnsrud, Donna Waitkus, Katie Hartman, Kristin Bowers, Ashley Mihlebach, Brian Grogan, Rachel Levenberg, Kristine Macrides, Tobly McSmith, Kelly Danver, Diane Burrowes, and Raven Andrus. At my UK publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, special thanks to editorial director Melissa Cox for her passionate advocacy, as well as to Lily Cooper, Louise Swannell, Alice Morley, Carolyn Mays, and Mariafrancesca Ierace, my first and much-appreciated Calabrese reader. Warmest thanks to the scouts and subagents who have taken Stella all over the world, especially Kate McLennan at Abner Stein, Liz Gately, Mary Ann Thompson, Todd Siegal, Danny Yanez, Kelly Faber, Alanna Feldman, Beniamino Ambrosi, Erica Berla, Ludmilla Sushkova, Teresa Villarrubla, Lukasz Wrobel, Tatjana Zoldnere, and Eliane Benisti. To early readers and industry friends whose support I will never forget: Millicent Bennett, Billie Bloebaum, Pam Brown, Mary Fran Buckley, Anmiryam Budner, Stephanie Crowe, Dawn Davis, Jean Garnett, Emily Giglierano, Keebe Fitch, Jules Herbert, Barbara Hoffert, Delany Holcomb, Amy Hundley, Barbara Jones, Sarah Knight, Alane Mason, Andra Miller, Diana Miller, Peter Mock, Carol Price, Lisa See, Jessica Shattuck, Elissa Sweet, Susan Taylor, Laura Tisdel, Adriana Trigiani, Tom Wickersham, Erin Wicks, Wilda Williams, and Jeff Wong.
Thanks to all the consummate professionals at The Gernert Company, but particularly Rebecca Gardner, who is not only a killer foreign rights director but a brilliant reader; Will Roberts; Julia Eagleton; and Ellen Coughtrey. Most of all, thank you to my inestimable agent, Sarah Burnes, for loving Stella, for being so smart and tireless, for changing my life.
Thanks to my once and future writing groups, but especially to the Ost crew—We
ndy Cebula, at whose dining room table I first wrote down Stella’s name, Lyndsay Hemphill, Anna Bliss, Jayne Sosland, and Maria Stasavage—and the TTC, Karissa Chen, Erika Swyler, and Jennifer Ambrose, who has been Stella’s spiritual third sister through all the many drafts. For their thoughtful critical feedback, I humbly thank Casey Donnelly, Cindy Pon, Sandra Hodges, and Karen McMurdo.
While writing this story about sisters, I was ever grateful for my own sister, Katherine; she and her twin, Jeffrey, are daily sources of inspiration to me. My deepest thanks of all are for my parents, who are both heroes and friends: to my father, Michael Grames, who made me a book person; and my mother, Linda D. C. Grames, my first and most important reader, who indoctrinated me with storytelling. My most unpayable debt is to my grandmother Antonette Cusano, who would not have read these words even if she had lived to see them, and who never knew how much she gave me.
And finally, my husband, Paul Oliver, my partner in all things and the reason I believe, emphatically, in love stories. Thank you for being there every step of the way, for reading and listening, for understanding my prickly brain and overheated heart. How lucky I am to have you to dedicate this last line to.
About the Author
JULIET GRAMES was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in a tight-knit Italian American family. A book editor, she has spent the last decade at Soho Press, where she is associate publisher and curator of the Soho Crime imprint. This is her first novel.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA. Copyright © 2019 by Juliet Grames. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Cover design by Allison Saltzman
Cover art © Elvanova/Shutterstock
Digital Edition MAY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-286284-6
Version 03272019
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-286282-2 (hardcover)
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-293964-7 (international edition)
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