by Domenica de Rosa
(2004)
Publisher: Quercus
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The Di Napolis may have been raised in England, but their souls are Italian… Charismatic, irascible and defiantly Italian, Cesare presides over his large family much like his Roman namesake.
But when a journalist begins asking questions about his allegiances during the war, Sophie realises how little she really knows her adored grandfather. She embarks with him on a journey of discovery through turn of the century Naples, 1920s Clerkenwell and the war years, in the course which she learns something else: whom it is that she really loves.
This book was her first novel, and there are strong signs throughout of the warmth and fluidity of style that she has now perfected. The story is about the immigrant experience – Italians in London in the twentieth century. But it’s more than that – the characters are thoughtfully described, and they talk like real people.
