Wednesday November 6 2019. 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm. John D. Calandra Italian American Institute: 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor. New York, N.Y. 10036. Juliet Grames’s novel tells the story of Stella Fortuna—beautiful and smart, insolent and cold—who is considered an oddity in her Calabrian village. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities.

When the family emigrates to Connecticut on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina come of age together in a hostile new environment with strict expectations for each of them. Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.