Description
From award-winning writer and producer Angela Page Conti comes a sweeping historical novel inspired by the author’s great-grandfather.
Enrico G is a powerful and often amusing story chronicling an immigrant’s journey from Italy’s Abruzzo region and the family’s centuries-old olive groves to New York, stretching from 1870s to the years following World War II. Shaped by extraordinary women, Enrico G is a compelling portrait of a man caught up in a web of ambition and love, prejudice and acceptance, identity and morality, where even a shared meal can turn deadly.
“Enrico G’s family has their own unique way of getting rid of invaders, whether they’re 19th century brigands or 20th century Nazis. The lusty chef Enrico’s adventures in Abruzzo Italy and New York are engrossing reading with an oddball group of characters you’ll want to meet. Shows how historical events roll over the lives of olive growers and their families. A lively page-turner with many humorous and surprising moments. Engrossing and compelling!” —RONNI SANDROFF, author of Party Party | Girlfriends | two novellas and Fighting Back
“Enrico G is a vivid saga of migration and survival which will resonate with many Italian-Americans. It’s also a reminder that if you’re tempted to sample Abruzzese cuisine, you’d better be on good terms with the chef!” —LARRY GURWIN, author of The Calvi Affair: Death of a Banker, co-author of False Profits and The Insiders.
“A stunning story that spans the late 19th century to both World Wars. Traveling from Italy to America to save himself and his family, Enrico G is heroic, calculating, loving and deadly. This is a historical novel about a complicated man who is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. If you loved The Godfather, be prepared for Enrico G, his friends, enemies and lovers to take you away.” —MEREDITH BERLIN, author of Friends With Issues, editor-in-chief of Soap Opera Digest and Seventeen Magazine, Emmy Awards nominee.
“Blunt and unapologetic, Enrico G leaps off the page as a force of nature. Angela Page Conti’s blend of true story with fiction brims in recounting a larger-than-life Italian ancestor, a chef by trade, whose frankness is worth an indulgent read into the whys and hows. Around characters navigating their lives in World War II Italy against an ever-expanding Nazi front, Conti’s pace is strong and her story-telling voice shines.” —LORIE GREENSPAN, publishing director at TriMark Press, author and poet of forthcoming, What it is to grow a garden in the Age of Terror and Gardens of Einstein.
“With droll humor, Page delivers a spirited novel about Enrico G, a 20th century Italian immigrant who lives by his wits and ‘buona fortuna,’ moving back and forth between the new world and the old, to pursue his singular American Dream. I loved the quirky characters and fast pace.” —DEBRA BANERJEE, winner of the Florida Magazine Association Charlie Award for The Boca Raton Observer, New York Press Association Best Arts Coverage Award, and Best Headlines for The Scarsdale Inquirer.
About the Author: Angela Page Conti is an award-winning Latina and Italian American writer and producer with experience in multinationals such as Microsoft, Honeywell, and Siemens. A graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business and The London School of Economics, Angela is president of the Women’s National Book Association’s Florida chapter and coordinator of the Author Guild’s historical fiction subgroup. Her films are featured on The Shorts TV channel, FunnyorDie, Indiepix, and IWoman TV. Published books include Matched in Heaven, Suddenly Single Sylvia, and There’s a Dead Girl in My Yard. Her essays have appeared in HuffPost, The Independent, Business Insider, Next Avenue, The South China Morning Post, and a variety of anthologies. Angela speaks Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
