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TREASURE OF MY HEART
1-58124-760-5 • 978-1-58124-760-2 Genre: Mainstream Author: Christine Caligiuri Cover art: Don O'Keefe Trade Paperback, 220 pgs., $13.99 Click on book cover to order from Amazon.com
A naive, young Clerina is brought by her much beloved husband, Leonardo, from the towering, mystical mountains of Southern Italy to America's flat Heartland where there is promise of better livelihood. As she struggles to understand an alien culture, reels from deaths of children, and agonizes over bitter letters from her disapproving mother in Italy, her spirit gradually fades.
The story mirrors the trauma of many immigrants to this country. It also faithfully depicts ordinary life in the Italian community of Des Moines, Iowa early in the 20th century.
Christine Caligiuri, a Creighton University graduate, former teacher and mother of six, traveled to Southern Italy in 1989 where she discovered a cousin living in her grandparents' former home. This became the ultimate incentive for telling Clerina's story.
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