After Elena Ferrante, another powerful Italian voice emerges to tell us a tale of immigration with two strong women characters at its center, set against the background of American history, from the late 60's to 2011.
This novel provides an interesting commentary on the highlights in history that influenced the development of American society and brought about the current outcome. It includes love, struggle, and social turmoil.
Amy's Story begins with Amy, full name America, moving from Italy to New York City to live near her American father. Her journey from immigrant to successful publisher is intertwined with Stella, her childhood friend, whose unfinished memoir she intends to publish.
They both experience love, friendship, obstacles, success, and more, as their journey runs parallel to the Vietnam War, student protests and the Kent State shooting, the birth of radicalism and feminism, presidential elections and assassinations, the Watergate scandal, up to the 9/11 attack and beyond.
In the end, Stella's memoir does not get published, because Amy transforms it into a very successful novel. This twist will have readers re-imagine the entire story and see it from a surprising new perspective.
"Amy's Story is simply spellbinding. This is a story at once about identity, love and social upheaval; a woman's journey from old world to new; from Italy to America. Mysterious, brave and captivating."
βJoe McGinniss Jr., author of Carousel Court and The Delivery Man
"From the collapsing towers of 9/11 to the lyrical groves of northern Italy, the author ingeniously morphs Amy's Story into a journey across America and back and forth across time. Along the way we meet a cohort of colorful characters, witness several romances, and there are wars and politics, tooβall woven into a mesmerizing narrative that unspools like a good film. Anna Lawton is not only a scholar of the first rank, but a deft and artful novelist with a flair for the unexpected in her work."
βLouis Menashe, author of Moscow Believes in Tears: Russians and Their Movies