Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano

The subtitle of Elizabeth Street is A Novel Based on True Events, and overall, the novel works.  A few parts seemed forced, but what the heck--  Laurie Fabiano had a great family story to tell, and I'm glad she did.  And, by the way, this was a self-published novel before being published by Amazon's very own imprint called Amazon Encore.

Elizabeth Street tells the story of Italians who emigrated to the United States in the beginning of the 20th Century and ended up in NYC. And it's not the standard story of Italians in New York.  Yeah, there are gangsters, but it's a bit different from the story of Tony Soprano.  I learned why Italian-Americans know exactly where their families were from in Italy; it has to do with the unification of Italy.  (Italians aren't from Italy but are from specific places in Italy.) And I learned that when Italians arrived at Ellis Island they were "considered to be two races. A race from the north and a race from the south.  The northerners are classified 'white' and the southerners 'in-betweeners.'  Of course, in Italy, the northerners simply call you peasants or Africans." (pg 110)

But Elizabeth Street isn't a history textbook though the history in it is very interesting.  Elizabeth Street is the story about Giovanna Costa, a very strong woman who does what she has to do in order to protect her family, including taking on the Black Hand. This is an engaging tale, and I highly recommend it.