In hauntingly evocative prose, Adria Bernardi creates a finely stitched fabric depicting the intertwined lives of three generations of closely related Italian families. At the novel’s beginning, Imola Bartolai’s lucid, yet troubled voice speaks from a mountain village on the border of Tuscany in northern Italy where she lives a hard life close to the land with her wandering husband and three children. Her favorite brother, Egidio, seeks a better life in America in the coal mines of Dawson, New Mexico. When Egidio’s quiet voice is silenced by a horrific accident, the voice of his childhood friend and traveling companion, Antenore Gimorri, passionately urges their fellow workers to join the struggle for labor rights. As a stonemason, Gimorri raises three sons in the Chicago area, and it is his granddaughter, Adele, fully assimilated into American life, who closes the circle, traveling to Italy in search of her family’s roots. In the novel’s final section, her voice imaginatively joins Imola’s as the two women, separated in time by a hundred years, find that there are many threads that bind them.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Like red hair and olive skin, madness and misery can pass through generations and even cross oceans and climb mountains before eventually finding a repository in families whose propensity for joy or sorrow is as accessible as the stories they share or the secrets they submerge beneath longing and disappointment. Beginning with Imola Bartolai's poignantly heartrending tale of desire and remorse, Bernardi follows Imola's family and countrymen as they settle in America, creating an expansive yet intimate multigenerational tale that reaches from the rugged hillsides of Tuscany during the waning days of the nineteenth century to the affluent suburbs of Chicago at the dawn of the twenty-first. As each family becomes more acclimatized to their new culture, their sense of personal displacement deepens as they encounter tragedy more often than they embrace success. Bernardi's is an ethereal yet incisive portrait of a passionate people who simultaneously yearn for a better future while clinging doggedly to the security of the past. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
". . . Bernardi extends her range in Openwork, and in shimmering and imagistic prose, writes with a fresh urgency." -- Jay Parini
". . . this is a novel in which the sentences themselves capture the feel of human beings at work." -- Andrea Barrett
"Openwork is glorious! A remarkable book, a beautiful book." -- Jane Hamilton
"An epic tale of love, loss, and longing." -- Louise DeSalvo
"Beautifully conceived and imagined, full of lived-in life, this book seems not so much written as unearthed." -- Janet Peery
". . . this is a novel in which the sentences themselves capture the feel of human beings at work." -- Andrea Barrett
"Openwork is glorious! A remarkable book, a beautiful book." -- Jane Hamilton
"An epic tale of love, loss, and longing." -- Louise DeSalvo
"Beautifully conceived and imagined, full of lived-in life, this book seems not so much written as unearthed." -- Janet Peery
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging characters,
This review is from: Openwork: A Novel (Hardcover)
In the style we have come to expect from Adria Bernardi, OPENWORK does not dissappoint. She has developed wonderful characters whose lives seem relevant and poignant. Her knowlege of Italian history, geography and language make the book that much more interesting. It lost one star in my opinion for not drawing conclusions, or perhaps bringing closure to some of the many characters lives. The theme seemed a little lost at the end. Overall a very enjoyable book. I look forward to more from this author.
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