Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558612051
Publication Date: 01-01-1998

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The lives of three generations of women in an Italian American family. The first women is Umbertina who goes from being a goatherder in the hills of Calabria to the owner of a thriving business in Upstate New York. Her granddaughter, Marguerite, who moves back to Italy and is caught between culturals. Marguerite's daughter, Tina, finds resolution as a strong, independent, Italian-American woman.

"An important novel for these times . . . through a dazzling interplay of American and Italian characters in both countries, Helen Barolini delineates the major concerns of all thinking American ethnics." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"An ambitious saga which spans the history and probes some of the tensions of the Italian American . . . panoramic, descriptive, and solidly crafted." —Publishers Weekly

"Readable, perceptive, and rich in detail." —Library Journal

"Umbertina should be read. . . . Barolini redeems from silence, from neglect, those brave women upon whose shoulders [Italian Americans] should be proud to stand." —Newsletter of the Italian-American Institute

"I read Umbertina nonstop on the afternoon and all through the night of the day it came. . . . Large in scope, in depth, and in the gift of rapid narrative movement." —Cynthia Ozick, author of The Shawl