Critical Praise

"Vita is a carousel of figures with alternating choral and solo scenes, a fresco rich in details, where every sentence is stunningly dense with action, images, and thoughts. Thanks to her soaring imagination, Mazzucco fuses documentary and story in her account of a sliver of the epic Italian migration to America, full of daily heroic deeds, dedication to work, organized and random crime, benevolent solidarity, and ruthless acts."

——Enzo Golino, La Rivista dei Libri

"Vita is a fabulous book. Mazzucco digs in her memory and her family history . . . to recount the colossal and painful journey of those Italians who emigrated to America, driven by a dream of prosperity they were denied at home."

——Oliviero La Stella, Il Messaggero

"The test of a good book is not wanting it to end. Vita is a story full of stories, written with a grace charged with compassion and cruelty."

——Giovanni Tesio, La Stampa

"Told with great intensity, this story becomes a legend, interweaving historical events and individual destinies, anonymous and legendary lives of such figures as Enrico Caruso and Charlie Chaplin."

——Renato Minore, Il Messaggero