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When We Were Strangers

by Pamela Schoenewaldt (Goodreads Author)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 1,550 ratings · 256 reviews

"If you leave Opi, you'll die with strangers," Irma Vitale's mother always warned.

Even after her beloved mother's passing, 20-year-old Irma longs to stay in her Abruzzo mountain village, plying her needle. But too poor and plain to marry and subject to growing danger in her own home, she risks rough passage to America and workhouse servitude to achieve her dream of making...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published January 25th 2011 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published 2011)

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Feb 12, 2013 Dem rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

When we were Strangers is an inspiring story of strength, determination and courage of a young Italian Woman who travels across the world in 1880s to better her life.

Pamela Schoenewaldt’s debut novel tells the story of the lonely and eventful journey of Irma, a young Italian woman possessed of a quiet inner strength as she ventures alone into a wide, unknown world of the 1880s America. Irma begins her life in the remote Italian mountain village of Opi. Her ancestors found only misfortu...more 3.5 Stars

When we were Strangers is an inspiring story of strength, determination and courage of a young Italian Woman who travels across the world in 1880s to better her life.

Pamela Schoenewaldt’s debut novel tells the story of the lonely and eventful journey of Irma, a young Italian woman possessed of a quiet inner strength as she ventures alone into a wide, unknown world of the 1880s America. Irma begins her life in the remote Italian mountain village of Opi. Her ancestors found only misfortune after leaving their home, but with a plain face and too small of a dowry and men appatently "as scarce as hens teeth" twenty-year-old Irma sees no other choice but to take the boat in search of a better life.
Her brother emigrates to America and shortly afterward Irma find herself taking the same path and hoping to meet up with him in America.

I really enjoyed this book as my own great grandmother travelled around this time to America from Ireland I was interested in Irma’s story. I think it really captures the struggle of emigrants from all over the world who travelled to American to seek their fortune at this period in time. I really felt the author captured the sense of time and place and I really found myself seeing everything through Irma’s eyes. I really appreciated the struggle with the language for someone like Irma and dealing with leaving a close nit village to a vast city must have been such a struggle for emigrants.

I also felt the great sense of loneliness and fear that must have been felt by women travelling alone at the time.

"It was not for love that poor girls sough husbands. We yearned for daily bread and a tight roof, firewood in winter and with luck a main who wouldnt beat us, who would talk with us in the long"

Women back then wanted to little and ended up with putting up with so much.

This book is good historical fiction and the characters are very well written and believable, I think the author did a good job with her research and I found myself turning the pages quite quickly.

(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kate by: Received review copy from TLC book tours

Shelves: favorites

Before I get started, I just wanted to point out that this is my favorite book of 2011 so far. What is sure to follow is a gushing fangirl review that cannot recommend this book enough and will probably not do the beauty of this book justice. But I will try.

When We Were Strangers transports the reader from the high and rural hills of Irma Vitale's family home in Opi, Italy, through her long journey to America and opportunity. She is a small town girl, going out into a world bigger than she has e...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Marcy rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Even an uprooted tree could find a scoop of welcoming earth." Irma was from a small village in Italy. After her bereaved father came home drunk, he tried to make a pass at his daughter. Irma knew she did not have a safe place to live in her village any more, particularly with the old-fashioned mores of her village. She decided to go to America, the land of opportunity, where her brother had gone before her. Irma became the classic immigrant "sewer" and "embroiderer" in Cleveland. There were dan...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Janice George rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the things I appreciated the most about this story was the voice of the author's narrator and main character, Irma, which felt surprisingly authentic... in fact, I googled the author to find her bio & see if she is actually Italian. She isn't, but she lived many years in a small Italian town outside Naples, and spent time in Opi (Irma's village home). Schoenewaldt has also had a play produced at Teatro Cilea, in Naples. So, to my mind, her narrator's authenticity is justified.

It is a...more

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Dec 31, 2011 megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical_fiction

I remember moving across the country with the "luxuries" of modern communication to keep me in contact with my family and a companion I knew would be with me every step of the way. I was still pretty effing terrified--so its hard to even imagine being in a situation like the main character of When We Were Strangers, Irma, wherein she is truly in an impossible situation in her Italian hometown of Opi and must make the decision to travel to America by herself with a few scant resources. She decide...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

"If you leave Opi you'll die with strangers," said her mother to Irma Vitale. Yet she leaves Opi, not when her brother does, but later upon the advice of Father Anselmo and Zia Carmela, her aunt. Afraid to go and afraid to stay after her father made sexual advances, Irma takes the dowry her father gives her and gold from Zia and begins her trip to America.

For a naive peasant girl, the trip holds many experiences. She is robbed, losing the gold, and what little she has, but she gets to Cleveland...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Highly recommended. Beautifully written historical novel about an Italian immigrant woman who comes to America alone and makes her own future through experiences in Cleveland, then Chicago, and finally San Francisco.

This author has written short stories. This novel, her first, grew out of a short story about the main character. The writing is just wonderful! (A quote on the front cover of the paperback from another author reads: "I long for this kind of lovely prose. A cut above.") Here is a br...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Lydia Presley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, fiction, historic-fiction, italy

When We Were Strangers blew me away.

I mean, it's about time I read a b0ok in 2011 that gripped me as much as this book did and honestly, the binding I got for the Advanced Copy was rough to read, the words were half-faded and still, I didn't mind at all. Not a single bit. Because the story was that powerful.

Irma is a woman with strength, character, and resolve, yet also I found in her innocence, fear, and a sense of loneliness. This character in a story exhibited every trait that I would strive...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Mary Gramlich rated it 5 of 5 stars

WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS written by Pamela Schonwewaldt
January 2011 - HarperCollins Publishers – Trade Paperback, 336 pages

Where we came from makes us who we are and what we become.

Irma Vitale started life out in the poor, desolate town of Opi, Italy. She dreamed of better things and a more advanced life than the one she was leading. He journey took her alone to America in the times of Lincoln’s reformation. Irma like the country she now lived in would venture forward and Irma believed she too cou...more WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS written by Pamela Schonwewaldt
January 2011 - HarperCollins Publishers – Trade Paperback, 336 pages

Where we came from makes us who we are and what we become.

Irma Vitale started life out in the poor, desolate town of Opi, Italy. She dreamed of better things and a more advanced life than the one she was leading. He journey took her alone to America in the times of Lincoln’s reformation. Irma like the country she now lived in would venture forward and Irma believed she too could become someone else but still be true to her roots and upbringing. She missed her family and longed at times for what she had but never regretted her decision despite the agony she had to endure.

She started out in Cleveland looking for her brother who left before her but soon moved on to Chicago. Irma had a skill as a seamstress and the talent she possessed to create intricate works of art from pieces of cloth earned her an income and a living enough to move on to San Francisco to start yet again in the field of medicine. Irma was a believer who never stopped to wallow in self-pity and always said thank you for the good this new life brought.

Her life was never easy; the times were difficult on good days and despondent on others. She worked hard, never complained and suffered such atrocities no one should endure but still she moved on. But the Opi girl became an American Woman and showed everyone what determination looks like and how to be something when everyone tells you that you are nothing.

Irma is an accumulation of each of our ancestries who did not start out but came to America and made a great life for the generations that followed. Poverty was a way of life and Ms. Schonwewaldt writes this with such clarity you stomach starts to grumble with the hunger these people felt. In this time of immigration critiquing it might be nice to have someone read this book and remember that everyone has a dream to live a better life and shouldn’t we be proud they believe all this is possible in the United States of America.
(less)

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Dec 24, 2010 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is another difficult review to write. Irma's story, itself, is not particularly new. Italian immigrant in dying mountain village leaves for a better life in America, speaking not a word of English, creating a story to get her through customs. She is poorly educated and poorly skilled - sewing being the only skill she possessed.

Irma meets a copper salesman and he provides transportation to Naples. He is a kind man who also picks up an orphan in a Typhus ridden village to deliver her to her...more This is another difficult review to write. Irma's story, itself, is not particularly new. Italian immigrant in dying mountain village leaves for a better life in America, speaking not a word of English, creating a story to get her through customs. She is poorly educated and poorly skilled - sewing being the only skill she possessed.

Irma meets a copper salesman and he provides transportation to Naples. He is a kind man who also picks up an orphan in a Typhus ridden village to deliver her to her aunt and uncle. They stay with his sister for one night and continue on, drop off the child and Irma buys her steerage ticket. She rides out a storm in third class, gets in a fight, her face is scarred but she makes friends. Exits ship, embarks on train to Cleveland, Ohio. Works in sweat shop for pittance but she's grateful for a job and so it continues while she runs into trouble here and there, embarks on new adventures where she is, once again, a stranger, and makes herself at home in Chicago and again in San Francisco.

There are a couple of aspects that sets this book apart from other immigrant books. The first and most important aspect is that the author wastes no time in establishing each character. It is only at the end of the book that I discovered that the story began as a short story and told of Irma until she walked away from Opi, her tiny Italian village. Writing a good short story is like learning how to use Twitter. You have 140 characters to say what you need to say. No words are wasted. No characters are wasted. Each person introduced is quickly established with a personality and all the needed characteristics to either be endearing or irritating and the author does not spend precious page space pontificating.

The second important aspect to this story is the imagery the author provides for the reader. Using all the senses without feeling like I've returned to College Writing 101, I saw, smelled, felt, heard, and tasted Opi, the ship (not pleasant), the trains, Cleveland, Chicago, and San Francisco.

The third aspect is that the story told itself. Irma's conclusions to leave Opi and strike out to America are logical based on the state of the village. Finding a ride with a copper merchant is believable and I was relieved he was trustworthy. Passing a town afflicted with a plague, picking up a child, meeting the merchant's sisters and neighbors, buying the ticket, staying in a boarding house, etc. are all logical. People Irma meet on her journey are logical and not contrived. That leg of the journey ends and they continue in their own directions.

If the book were made into a movie, I would not see it. I would be bored. It is the author's style that makes this book a work of art. (less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Agatha rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Historical fiction. Follows young Irma as she emigrates from a tiny town in Italy to the US, first to NYC, then Cleveland, Chicago, and, finally, San Francisco. She earns her way as a seamstress doing first collar piece work in Cleveland and then fine embroidery and sewing for rich ladies in Chicago.

I think the best adjective to describe this book would be: “uneven.” Some parts – brilliant, descriptive, flash of magic in the word choices, descriptions, insight. Other parts – so mediocre or sim...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 20, 2012 MrsF rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: door-stop-material, 2012-reads

Ergh, just finished. In short summation, this was disingenuous, overtly derivative, horribly cliched, laughable, and all round just b-grade. Uh, so yeah, I wasn't a fan!?!! The idea of the story piqued my interest, and it was certainly an easy read which got me into it - but that ease soon became a case of 'let's state the bleeding obvious'. I prefer an author who presumes at least a hint of intelligence in her reader, sheesh!

The inconsistent pace of the story really bothered me. There were tim...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Mmtimes4 rated it 3 of 5 stars

"If you leave Opi, you'll die with strangers," Irma Vitale's mother always warned. Even after her beloved mother's passing, 20-year-old Irma longs to stay in her Abruzzo mountain village, plying her needle. But too poor and plain to marry and subject to growing danger in her own home, she risks rough passage to America and workhouse servitude to achieve her dream
...more"If you leave Opi, you'll die with strangers," Irma Vitale's mother always warned. Even after her beloved mother's passing, 20-y...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Whenever snow or rain storms keep me indoors, my favorite thing to do is snuggle up in front of the fire place with a good book. Yesterday, I picked up When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt, and was literally transported to the 1880’s. This beautifully written and remarkable story about a young Italian girl’s journey from her village in Opi, Italy to America, was both riveting and memorable. Schoenewaldt’s exquisite prose carves out a heartfelt tale about determination and the will to su...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Staci rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Staci by: TLC Book Tour

Shelves: tlc-tour-2011, 2011-reads

My heart goes pitter patter when I think of this book. So I guess it's pretty apt that my review posts on Valentine's Day then...love, hearts, endearment...that sort of stuff. My Valentine is this book. It's a treasure of love and if I could send the author a million Valentine's I would!!! O.K. so now after that little love fest I will proceed to try to put my thoughts down in a coherent fashion and explain to you why I absolutely adored this book.

* I loved reading the experience of being an im...more My heart goes pitter patter when I think of this book. So I guess it's pretty apt that my review posts on Valentine's Day then...love, hearts, endearment...that sort of stuff. My Valentine is this book. It's a treasure of love and if I could send the author a million Valentine's I would!!! O.K. so now after that little love fest I will proceed to try to put my thoughts down in a coherent fashion and explain to you why I absolutely adored this book.

* I loved reading the experience of being an immigrant through Irma's eyes. She's so young and naive, but she knows that there is nothing for her in the small mountain village where she lives. It takes so much strength and courage to pack all of your personal belongings, leave everything you know, and cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of a better future.
* Irma is too trusting and expects the best of people. It's heartbreaking to see how immigrants were taken advantage of when they were fresh off the boats. What I loved the most about her is the way she would pick herself back up, dust off her dress, and continue to live. She is dealt some unfair cards during her life in Chicago and I'm amazed at how resilient she came to be and that she actually allowed her heart to trust people again.
* The story came across so true and authentic. This was a very well researched piece of work and it shines through in the pages. I actually could envision those first images of America that Irma took and the nights when she was allowed to sit on the deck of the boat, I could hear the waves and taste the salt of the sea in the wind. I also felt that the author captured the melting pot of the various places that Irma lived. I could quite literally hear the accents, smell the people and their strange food cooking, and listen to them as they tried to acclimate and become an "American."
* I'm currently researching my own genealogy and while reading this story would often wonder if any of my relatives ever had the same experiences. It has further pushed me to continue on where I have hit dead ends...I would love to know the rest of their stories!

Recommend: Oh yes!! If you're at all interested in immigrant stories and historical fiction then I truly believe that you will love this little gem. As for me...I'm personally begging the author to give us more of Irma's story....what happens next????

Rating: 5/5- loved it!!! (less)

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Feb 11, 2012 Joy H. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: selection-of-sr-cit-grp, historical-fiction, historical-background, a-good-read, linear

Added 1/30/12.
Edit added 2/1/12 - My comment at my group:
=================================
I'm currently reading a good book: When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt. It's a selection of our Sr Cit book club and is VERY interesting, almost compelling. It's about a young Italian girl who emigrates to America years ago from a small town in Italy. The descriptions of her experiences are so well-written, touching and informative as well.
=================================

Edit added 2/11/12:
I enjo...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Irma Vitale lives in the village of Opi, Italy. She is of marriageable age but is "too poor and too plain" to marry. As a very brave move, and probably her last chance of any kind of a life, she leaves her village and goes via steerage in a large boat to New York and then via train to Chicago. She doesn't know anyone there but hopes to find her brother who left Italy years ago and was never heard from again. On the ship, Irma gets her face cut and now is not only plain, but has a large ugly scar...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Sirpa Grierson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I really enjoyed this book, so this is almost a four, except that I felt it was a little overly contrived in parts--just too much happens to Irma. Yet, much of the book is interesting including the medical descriptions of the time (late 1880s) as well as intereting insights on embroidery, fashion,mfabrics, and clothing design. As an immigrant myself, there were passages that struck me as very "true" in their feel. When Irma is offered bread from her homeland, for instance, she has an experience...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Cassandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, secular-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 03, 2011 Judie Shapiro rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book I could not put down. A twenty year old girl named Irma Vitale leaves her Italian mountain village to go to America. The year is 1883. Irma takes with her a piece of fabric, scissors, thread and a needle. That is how she survives the crossing and when she arrives in Cleveland her first city, she gets a job sewing. She has many miserable experiences, then leaves Cleveland and goes to Chicago, and then finally to San Francisco. She gets jobs sewing and then gets a good job in a fine...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those rare books that I find extremely difficult to review because it struck a chord so close to my heart that I was left surprised and confused. I haven't had a book resonate so deeply for years, so I'm having a hard time stepping back and offering up an objective analysis.

This book is, in a word, beautiful. The language, the setting, the rhythm of Schoenewaldt's writing style, our heroine. The rich complexity of "old country" customs mingling with the newness of 19th century Am...more

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May 27, 2012 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I love historical and cultural reads and loved this well-written book. Irma Vitale bravely leaves tiny, insular Opi and an Italy that holds no future for her for the hope of America, intending to earn money to send back to her family and someday return. Instead she finds danger, hardships, and harsh factory life. She leaves new friends to pursue better hopes of finding her dream, but just as she works her way into the perfect job, she discovers her dream changing. Warning: right-to-lifers may no...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Connie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I only list books that I think are well-written and enjoyable on my Good Reads Listing. If I begin a book and do not think that it is worthwhile, I stop reading it after a few chapters. There are too many "good" books available so I am not going to waste my time on the others.

I have been very fortunate lately in that everything that I have chosen to read has been great.

"When we were Strangers" fits this category.

It is historical, very realistic fiction that tracks the life of Urma Vitale from he...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 19th-century, class-struggle, historical-fiction, kindle, minority, women, immigration, 2011, coming-of-age, crafts, family, united-states, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 17, 2011 Caren Nelson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished last night and I am tired today because of it...I couldn't put it down! Maybe because I like fashion and design and the dress making process and I am interested in my ancestors and immigrants and how/why they came to America--I really loved the storyline.

I loved the characters and I felt all of them were well thought and dimensional, even the minor ones. It wasn't too predictable. Even when I thought I was ready for a tragedy it ended up being something else entirely!

There is on...more

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Mar 21, 2011 S.B. Lerner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in the late 1800s the book opens with the plight of a young woman in a small town in Italy, with few prospects. It follows her journey to America, where she keeps starts again (and again and again) making new friends, overcoming the odds, etc. The details of time and place felt authentic, although the plot was a bit contrived, with things falling almost too neatly into place. Some of her experiences felt as though they were added to give texture to an otherwise meandering plot. I wasn't sor...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Mij Woodward rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: langum-charitable-trust, hist-fiction

I enjoyed getting into the shoes of a young single Italian woman, Irma, coming to America in the 1880's, and following her adventures and hardships and successes. I saw everything through her eyes--the trip from her village to Naples, the horrible below-decks life onboard the ship over, and her treks through Cleveland, Chicago, and San Francisco. Along the way, I learned from her interactions with other immigrants and Americans, the good and the bad.

Mostly, I enjoyed the history, getting a fe...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Suze rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: advance-copies, book-club-monthly-choice

Loved this book! I received it as an advance copy, and you never know how those will be. This is a keeper!

This is the late 19th century immigrant coming-of-age story of poor, plain Irma Vitale, a girl from a very small, rural Italian village. It's hard to imagine living as they did then - so isolated and ignorant of how the world works. For that reason, it must have taken great courage to leave and travel to the new world.

I enjoyed reading Irma's progress in America, and especially about the str...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Lucy Hannigan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book! Having lived in Italy many years ago, I love all things Italian. The author did a great job of creating characters that I cared about, that I cheered for and cried with. I was so proud of Irma and how she lived her life--in good times and bad. I think the book is a good reminder of how strong and courageous we can be--even when we're tempted to just go into hiding. Also, how many good, kind people there are in the world and how they enrich our lives and give us opportunities t...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Jade A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another of my “must reads” is WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS. This is a perfect read for a book club. WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS is an emotionally moving story of Irma's journey to find self-confidence and personal empowerment. Set in the late 1800s, Irma Vitale lives in rural Italy in the small village of Opi. There seems to be a family curse that “all Vitales who leave Opi are doomed to die among strangers”. After her mother's death, Irma defies the family "curse" and leaves everything behind and travels...more

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About Pamela Schoenewaldt

Pamela Schoenewaldt lived for ten years in a small town outside Naples, Italy. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines in England, France, Italy and the United States. Her play, “Espresso con mia madre” (Espresso with my mother) was performed at Teatro Cilea in Naples. She taught writing for the University of Maryland, European Division and the University of Tennessee and now lives i...more

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