The Good Left Undone

It has been well over a decade since I've read a book by Adriana Trigiani. That's a long time so when I learned that her latest book was set in Italy (a place I long to revisit) and it featured a story about generations of women, I was eager to reacquaint myself with this author's work.

This story has stunning descriptions of Italy as readers are pulled into the lives of Domenica in pre-WWII and the POVs from her female descendants decades later. I liked the overall theme of family and the bond between different generations of women, but Domenica's story was, by far, more interesting. I found that jumping ahead in time to the other POVs bogged down the story and made things unnecessarily confusing and I felt frustrated trying to remember who begat whom (a family tree would have been helpful). Though these POVs added some generational flare, I didn't find they greatly benefitted the overall story.

What stood out for me was the inclusion an unknown (to me) part of history. Trigiani revealed an interesting connection between Newfoundland here in Canada and Scottish Italians (known as Britalians). I found that bit of history to be quite fascinating.

Beautifully written with themes of family and loyalty, this would be a good pick for fans of Historical Fiction who enjoy stories that bring them into the heart of a large family. 

 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Adriana Trigiani

Genre: Historical Fiction

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Dutton

First Published: April 26, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: From Adriana Trigiani, "a master of visual and palpable detail" (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.

Matelda, the Cabrelli family's matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother's great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. . . .

In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home becomes unsafe when Italy teeters on the brink of World War II. Her journey takes her from the rocky shores of Marseille to the mystical beauty of Scotland to the dangers of wartime Liverpool--where Italian Scots are imprisoned without cause--as Domenica experiences love, loss, and grief while she longs for home. A hundred years later, her daughter, Matelda, and her granddaughter, Anina, face the same big questions about life and their family's legacy, while Matelda contemplates what is worth fighting for. But Matelda is running out of time, and the two timelines intersect and weave together in unexpected and heartbreaking ways that lead the family to shocking revelations and, ultimately, redemption.