title: Following Columbus
author: Aiello, Marti
description: The setting for this novel is against the backdrop of a small fishing village in Northern California in the 1900's. Two conniving mothers plot a marriage of convenience between a young girl just entering her teens, and an immigrant fisherman twice her age. Caterina Felici is forced to submit to Antonio Cardioni, and in a chain of events that follows, the unexpected happens that causes an avalanche of pain and humiliation to reverberate through two generations. The Italian ethos is questioned, as the story moves quickly and without pause to consider the moral element in this dramatic telling of the lives of a family. The characters are so well defined that you find yourself present in the encounters between friends and family. To be emotionally bound to the cast of characters and the part of us that is vulnerable and fallible, can be unsettling. Be willing to run, not walk, through this saga of two people caught in the tragedy of living out a redesigned life. And when you've finished reading, you'll step back and say, "This book would make a hell of a great movie "