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“May God bless you and give you what you need because what you want will get you in trouble.” Figliolo blessed himself.
She patted the dough on the cookie sheet before artfully placing the apple slices on top of the dough. She scattered pats of butter on top of the apple and sprinkled the mixture with sugar. Matelda dusted cinnamon over the sugar before pulling the four corners of the dough to the center, making a purse as her mother had taught her. She slid the strudel di mele into the oven.
That’s how the Fascisti got in. The first sign. Mussolini shut down the newspapers,” Olimpio said. “People never learn, not even in Italy when we’ve lived through it and we know better.”
out of the mine. Whoever dug the mine did not dig an adit,
she said under her breath.
asked. “We have different rules for the women in this family. As a
“I’m sorry, Mama.” Nicolina left the room, closing the door behind her.
Domenica re-created her mother’s Christmas cake from memory. The gardener had provided her with butter and eggs. She used two cups of flour, two cups of sugar. She blended them together in a bowl with a tablespoon of water. The Sisters had put up cherries in liqueur last summer, the last jar of them would grace the batter. She fished them out of the jar and added them to the mix slowly, throwing in a half cup of cherry juice before stirring. She set the batter aside, sat by the warm fire, and cracked the walnuts, removing the meat and placing it in a bowl. She cracked enough walnuts to make a
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His wife studied the newspapers upstairs and made notes in Italian that she kept in an empty flour bin. She cut out articles about Britalians and Tallies who had been picked up in the streets of London for small crimes or on the suspicion of them. The articles mentioned gambling, illegal wine production, black market hard-liquor sales, and fenced jewelry. But the truth was, a man only needed his Italian surname to be implicated.
Mussolini had been appointed by the king—he was not elected—and yet his will would decide the fate of her people. She
The blue shade of night was slowly pulled over the city.
whale. One boy whispered to his pals, “The grandest one of all.” “Gonna fill it with dirty Tallies ’n’ send them all back to It-lee where they belong.” “How do you know?” “My ole dad told us that they’re gonna round them up and ship them out. They stole our jobs. Thieves.”
to give you the opportunity to apologize.” “Do you realize they are rounding them up? They are sending the Tallies away because they are involved in all sorts of treachery. They cannot be trusted. They’re dirty. They gamble, they sell liquor, they take jobs from our young men because in Scotland, swarthy is exotic. Well, you see how exotic they are as they are shipped out to sea as common criminals. Churchill didn’t move fast enough, in my opinion.”
“Love changes over time, but so does grief,” the old widows in the village promised her.
“When you see an old lady who’s on the wrong side of a good mood, now you know why. She has a past that you can’t understand because you didn’t live it. As she ages, her feet hurt, her back aches, her knees click, she cooks, she cleans, she worries, she waits, and then she gets sick and dies. Be kind, Anina. Someday you’ll be the old lady.”
afraid he’d charge me for his half.”
the bowl of paglia e fieno to the
want you to realize that this whole thing is just a grand adventure. A fine show. The trick is to play in it and look at it at the same time. …The more kinds of people you see, the more things you do, and the more things that happen to you, the richer you are. Even if they’re not pleasant things. That’s living…
There are many gifts a friend brings to a woman’s life. History. Empathy. Honesty. Lucky was the woman who kept a childhood friend because that friend remembered what you looked like, who you were, and your people. Lucky was the woman who had a friend from the age of ten, when girls were brave, gutsy, and full of questions and had the time and pep to seek the answers. That friend knew who you really were. That friend had seen your soul.
Paolo makes you feel that everything is possible, marry him. If you think you have to make everything possible for him, don’t marry him. A woman appreciates support; a man needs to believe he did it all on his own. It’s ridiculous but accurate.”
Mama was born eight months after her father, Captain John Lawrie McVicars, died on the Arandora Star on July 2, 1940.
Mama loved her only brother, Nino.
When I die, please don’t tell anyone I still had social anxiety when I was fifty.”
Seventy-seven years is a long time to live in one place.”
When I was seven or so, and Matteo was ten, Mama got pregnant. She told me that if the baby was a girl, she was mine, and
“Nonna loved her father the sea captain,
As Anina held Nicolina, Anina promised herself she would name her daughter Domenica someday. Domenica Cabrelli.
He had kissed the same woman good night for fifty-four years,
Beppe jumped up on the bed and rested his head on Olimpio’s chest. His master was gently petting the dog when he felt four cat feet walk up his leg to his chest. Argento proceeded to take a spot on the pillow between Olimpio and the headboard. The three mourners soon fell asleep and remained together until the sun rose.
Recipes Here are a few of my favorite recipes from the novel with a cocktail courtesy of Veranda magazine (who chose The Good Left Undone as their book club selection in spring 2022). Fichi su un bastone (Figs Stuffed with Prosciutto and Cheese) ½ cup goat cheese ¼ cup toasted pine nuts 12–18 fresh figs 12–18 slices of prosciutto 1 tbsp. honey 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar Whip goat cheese and toasted pine nuts. Cut a fresh fig in half without separating the two parts. Stuff with goat cheese mixture. Cut prosciutto ribbon-style. Roll the stuffed fig in the prosciutto until the fig is covered. Grill
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