My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”
----Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, an English author and journalist
Mona Rodriguez and Dianne Vigorito, the two American cousin sisters, enchanted and deeply moved our hearts with their debut novel, Forty Years in a Day that revolves around a best-kept-hidden-family secret and how its revelation disrupts lives from generation after generation.
Synopsis:
The story begins in Italy, 1900. After years of torment and neglect, Victoria and her four small children immigrate to Hell's Kitchen, New York, to escape her alcoholic, abusive husband. On the day they leave, he tragically dies, but she does not learn of his death for several years—a secret that puts many lives on hold.
Quickly, they realize America's streets are not paved with gold, and the limits of human faith and stamina are tested time and time again. Poverty, illness, death, kidnapping, and the reign of organized crime are just some of the crosses they bear.
Victoria's eldest son, Vincenzo, is the sole surviving member of the family and shares a gut-wrenching account of their lives with his daughter during a visit to Ellis Island on his ninetieth birthday. He explains how the lives of he and his siblings have been secretly intertwined with an infamous Irish mob boss and ends his unsettling disclosure with a monumental request that leaves Clare speechless.
