FICTION

Tony's Wife

Harper. Nov. 2018. 496p. ISBN 9780062319258. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062319272. F
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Saverio Armandonada (later Tony Arma) and Chi Chi Donatelli meet in the 1930s, when they're both two young musicians on fire to change the world through music, and maybe give their own dreams a boost in the process. Trigiani (All the Stars in the Heavens) follows the idealistic pair through several decades of change in the American music scene. "Tony's wife" is a bit of a misnomer, as the strength of the book is Chi Chi's story, but Trigiani is the master of writing complex Italian families, full of characters who love and live with passionate (and sometimes fractured) hearts. Coming of age in the press of the Great Depression and the fires of World War II, Tony hangs on to past hurts, while Chi Chi thrives through life-changing events. Their disparate personalities mean they view the world through different prisms.
VERDICT Trigiani delivers another solid historical saga, and her readers will be pleased. As in Laurie Lico Albanese's Stolen Beauty, Jane MacKenzie's Tapestry of War, and titles by Sarah Jio, readers will follow characters around the world and through the years with interest. [See Prepub Alert, 5/21/18.]—Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA
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