Swimming in the moon
By: Pamela Schoenewaldt
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 341
ISBN-13: 9780062202239
Subjects: Women singers; Household employees; Italian Americans; Immigrants; Working class; Political activity; Fiction
Description: Italy, 1905. Fourteen-year-old Lucia and her young mother, Teresa, are servants in a magnificent villa on the Bay of Naples, where Teresa soothes their unhappy mistress with song. But volatile tempers force them to flee, exchanging their warm, gilded cage for the cold winds off Lake Erie and Cleveland's restless immigrant quarters. With a voice as soaring and varied as her moods, Teresa transforms herself into the Naples Nightingale on the vaudeville circuit. Clever and hardworking, Lucia blossoms in school until her mother's demons return, fracturing Lucia's dreams. Yet Lucia is not alone in her struggle for a better life. All around her, friends and neighbors, new Americans, are demanding decent wages and working conditions. Lucia joins their battle, confronting risks and opportunities that will transform her and her world in ways she never imagined.