THIEVES NEVER STEAL IN THE RAIN
By Marisa Labozzetta
Guernica Editions
www.marisalabozzetta.com
Northampton writer Marisa Labozzetta has chronicled the stories of Italian-Americans in her novel “Stay With Me, Lella” and the award-winning short story collection “At the Copa.”
In her latest work, “Thieves Never Steal in the Rain,” Labozzetta offers something of an amalgamation of the two genres: a series of linked short stories about the women of the Ficola family, a group of Italian-American cousins who grapple with the challenges of marriage and motherhood.
Labozzetta also adds just a hint of the supernatural to some of the stories, like the book’s opening tale, “Villa Forest,” to give the narrative an extra twist. In that story, middle-aged Joanna has traveled to Italy with her husband, Elliot, to visit relatives. The couple’s marriage is suffering in the aftermath of the death of their 20-something daughter, Jill; their relationship, Joanna thinks, “has lost its priority.”
But at the villa the couple stay at, Joanna is introduced to Elisabetta, the young daughter of one of the employees, and is shocked to discover the girl is the spitting image of her own daughter at that age. When Joanna discovers Elisabetta’s birthday is within days of Jill’s, she becomes convinced the girl is Jill reincarnated — and Elliot begins to question his wife’s sanity.
In “Deluxe Meatloaf,” Rosemary, during a testy restaurant dinner with her husband, Nate, listens with shock as he confesses to an affair with a younger woman and says he wants out of the marriage. There’s a bitter irony to the scene — after all, Rosemary writes a syndicated advice column on relationships.
In a follow-up story, “Comfort Me, Stranger,” Rosemary has moved into her own apartment — a former jail converted to condos — but is falling to pieces. “She had become one of her most pathetic readers: puffy eyed, long wavy hair flowing … wearing a nightgown like some unkempt mad figure in a gothic novel …”
Her cousins take up the job of writing Rosemary’s advice column, which makes for some comic moments as they swap notes on how to respond to certain letter writers. “What should I suggest for the man who slept with his mother-in-law?” asks Barbara. “Arsenic,” says Nancy. Rosemary, meanwhile, finds some solace in the company of an odd stranger, indeed.
Labozzetta’s characters, Kirkus Reviews writes, “maintain a strong, distinctly female voice throughout. They’re world-weary and wiser for it, and readers will want to enter that world. Most of the 10 stories could stand alone, but they gradually coalesce into a comprehensive, compelling family portrait.”
Marisa Labozzetta will read from her new collection May 11 at 7 p.m. at Broadside Bookshop in Northampton.
ALMOST HOME: FINDING A PLACE
IN THE WORLD FROM KASHMIR
TO NEW YORK
By Githa Hariharan
Restless Books
www.githahariharan.com
Githa Hariharan has worn a number of hats as a writer — novelist, essayist, journalist, columnist — and she’s also something of a world traveler, having lived in her native India, the United States, the Philippines and a few other spots. In her collection of essays, “Almost Home,” she reflects on what it means to live in a city and the history of some of the world’s most fraught urban locations.
“Almost Home,” published by Restless Books, a company founded by Amherst College professor and writer Ilan Stavans, offers a tour of both past and present: Delhi and Mumbai in India; 11th-century Córdoba, Spain; Tokyo; Copenhagen; New York; and Washington, D.C. It’s a unique kind of travel writing that combines memoir, history, philosophy and even fiction.
In a visit to Copenhagen, for instance, Hariharan reflects on the work of one of Denmark’s most famous sons, Hans Christian Andersen, as well as the rise of anti-Muslim feeling in a country long known for its tolerant attitudes and for rescuing Jews during World War II.
As one Dane says to her, “Now we have language and civic tests for newcomers, and citizenship contracts. … Any citizen of non-Danish origin can be deported if he commits a crime.”
Hariharan looks with sympathy at people struggling on our increasingly urban planet. As novelist and translator JM Coetzee puts it, she “not only takes us on illuminating tours through cities rich in history, but gives a voice to urban people from all over the world … [who are] trying to live with basic human dignity under circumstances of dire repression or crushing poverty.”