Echoes of the Past

About the Book

A child of unknown origin, Augustino Marsano is left on the doorstep of a foundling home in Sicily. He is soon adopted by a middle-aged farming couple from a nearby village. By the time he is 15 both parents have passed away. He subsequently leaves Sicily and heads northward to Naples where he becomes an apprentice in the craft of shoemaking. There he meets Francesca, a young girl who works as barmaid at her father’s inn. They fall in love and soon marry. Through time he gains expertise in his craft and eventually opens a small factory. His business flourishes, they live comfortably, and have a daughter Micha whom they adore. They decide to hire a housekeeper: Antonia, a married woman with three small children. She and Augustino drift into an affair; she becomes pregnant. Fearing the child may be his, Augustino decides the only way out of this dilemma is to take his family and immigrate to America.

They settle in Lynn, Massachusetts, and soon realize that life in America is far different than what they had expected. He finds work in a shoe factory but his lack of English forces him to settle for a menial job. Four months after their arrival, a distraught Antonia appears. Her husband was killed in a raid; fearful that her life and that of her children’s may be in jeopardy, she turns to the only person who can help her: Augustino. Accompanying her and her three children is an infant son whom Augustino learns is his. Faced with an agonizing decision, Augustino chooses to leave his family and start a new life with his former housekeeper.

Francesca is left alone with full responsibility of rearing her daughter Micha. They move to Brooklyn, then eventually relocate to Avalon, a booming industrial town in the upper part of the state. She forges ahead and becomes a successful businesswoman: first as owner of a boarding house, then proprietor of a saloon. Along the way she becomes acquainted with Steve DeMarco, a wealthy banker who is married with two children. They are magically drawn together and find themselves in a situation which neither had sought.

Driven with ambition, coupled with her illicit love affair with Steve, Francesca loses sight of the needs of her teenaged daughter.

Micha, now 18, becomes sole caretaker of her mother’s boarding house. She has little contact with her mother who is totally immersed in the operations of her saloon. Her only friend is Carlo, the 20-year-old son of a prosperous storekeeper. They fall in love and decide to elope but their plans go awry. She leaves Avalon and starts a new life in rural Vermont where she gives birth to Pietro, Carlo’s son. She leads a quiet, simple life, expects little, asks for nothing. In her mid-twenties, she marries Armando, a kind, gentle widower who operates the local barbershop.

As her son, Pietro, enters his teens he becomes curious about his roots, a subject Micha has skillfully managed to circumvent. While in college he locates his paternal grandparents, much to the dismay of his mother.

In her late thirties Micha gives birth to a daughter, Alissa.

Alissa reaches adulthood during the pre-World War II era. After graduating from college she finds work in Manhattan as assistant editor for a fledgling magazine. By nature a quiet, private person she does litle socializing, instead immerses herself in her work, making it the focal point of her life. Then she meets Aaron, a young architect, and her priorities change. They fall in love, talk about marriage, then after only a few months he is called into service and Alissa’s life begins to crumble.

During this period Alissa’s father passes away, leaving her mother alone in the farmhouse in Vermont where she insists on remaining. There continues to be an unexplained estrangement between Micha and her mother, the grandmother Alissa has never met.

As the story unfolds Alissa real

About the Author

Anita Terranova is a first-time novelist. “I have always loved to write,” she says, “as a child I kept a diary and in later years would weave stories around people who had crossed my path.” One of her short stories appeared in the magazine “Creative Years,” and more recently she won second place in the Westmoreland Short Story Competition. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.