The Sicilian Inheritance

November 1, 2023

Piazza (We Are Not Like Them, a GMA Book Club pick, cowritten with Christine Pride) pens an intergenerational, dual-timeline story that blends historical fiction and mystery. Sara gets a new chance at life when she inherits land in Sicily, only to discover that her great-great-grandmother Serafina might have been murdered. Focused on both women, the story is getting buzz, with an iHeart Radio podcast in the works and blurbs from Emily Giffin, J. Courtney Sullivan, and Pam Jenoff. Prepub Alert.

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February 12, 2024
Piazza (Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win) delivers an entertaining and suspenseful novel of an Italian American woman’s dangerous attempt to reconcile her family history in Sicily. Sara Marsala, a 30-something Philadelphia chef, travels to the Sicilian village of Caltabellessa to fulfill the final wishes of her great-aunt Rosie, who requested in a letter to Sara that her ashes be spread there. Aunt Rosie’s letter also tasks Sara with claiming a piece of land deeded more than 100 years earlier to Rosie’s mother, Serafina Forte, and finding out why Serafina never joined Rosie in the U.S. around that same time. Sara has her own troubles back in Philly: a failed restaurant, a failed marriage, and the loss of custody of her four-year-old daughter. These problems pale in comparison, however, to what awaits her in Sicily. First her passport is stolen, then she’s kidnapped and threatened by local thugs, incidents she suspects are related to her attempted land claim, and which prompt her to go undercover as a tourist. Piazza alternates Sara’s story with Serafina’s and mirrors the two thematically, offering bracing depictions of an oppressive patriarchy in early 20th-century Sicily and its legacy in the present. This paean to furbezza, the “devious intelligence” of women, succeeds on all counts. Agent: Byrd Leavell and Pilar Queen, UTA.

March 15, 2024
Sara Marsala is on the brink. She went from being a well-respected butcher and entrepreneur on the Philly restaurant scene to bankrupt, divorced, and terrified of losing custody of her four-year-old daughter. This is before the death of her beloved Aunt Rosie, who held their family together. Rosie leaves behind a mission for Sara: travel to the family's native Sicily and investigate a century-old deed to land. If Rosie's records are correct, the sale of the plot could pay for Sara's divorce and restaurant debts. In Sicily, Sara's senses are overwhelmed. Local hotelier Guisy, a rare female business owner on the island, and her friends assist, feed, and care for Sara, but nothing and no one can be trusted. Piazza's talent for readable, engrossing stories shines. Perspective alternates between Sara and her great-grandmother, Serafina, who was a much-discussed figure in the village at the turn of the twentieth century. Piazza offers mystery and romance and great questions about who does what work in society and why, as she brings to life both the realities of 1900s Sicilian women as their husbands left for the U.S. and the present-day discrimination and corruption in Sara's world. Smart, adventurous, and impossible to put down.

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Starred review from February 15, 2024
In this multigenerational novel inspired by Piazza's own family, two women tell a story that begins in Sicily a hundred years ago and leads to a return in the present day. The first narrative belongs to Sara Masala, a Philadelphia chef whose husband has just filed for divorce and full custody of their daughter; on top of that, her once-thriving restaurant has gone bankrupt and her great-aunt Rosie has died. It had always been Rosie's dream to visit her birthplace in Sicily and take Sara with her, but now Sara will be making the trip solo--Rosie booked and paid for a nonrefundable ticket and hotel room for her. Although it seems impossible for Sara to leave right now, Rosie threw in one more twist--leaving Sara a deed to a plot of land that belonged to Rosie's mother, Serafina. If Sara sells it, she can use the money to save her restaurant and, hopefully, her family. Sara makes the journey to the ancient mountain town of Caltabellessa and is taken under the wing of Giusy, the innkeeper and town gossip. As a child, Sara was always told that Serafina had died from the flu before she could make it to America. Giusy rips that idea apart when she drops the bomb that Serafina was actually murdered. As Sara digs into century-old secrets, her presence becomes a growing threat to the town's carefully protected way of life. Interspersed with Sara's journey is a secondary narrative belonging to Serafina, who provides context with Caltabellessa's history and the challenges faced by women in early-20th-century Sicily. Serafina's story is the beating heart of this novel, an honest look into the sacrifices of a young mother: "I barely had time to remember all the things I once wanted, all the lives I hoped to lead, but sometimes the desire all flooded back and I felt a small death." This novel almost feels like two books in one, but the stories are inextricably bound, most effectively through the way Piazza writes about the universal experience of what it means to be a woman and a mother. Fans of historical fiction, women's fiction, and mystery novels will be equally dazzled.

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