The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Good morning and happy Labor Day! I'm a stop on the TLC Book Tour for Adriana Trigiani's The Shoemaker's Wife today!

Ciro was just ten years old when he and his brother, Eduardo, were left at a convent. Their father had been killed in a mining accident in America and their mother, unable to cope with the loss, prevailed upon the nuns at San Nicola for help. She was supposed to return the following summer. Years passed with no word and the sisters continued to raise Ciro and Eduardo as if they were their own.

Enza and her family lived just five miles away, up the mountain. Her father owned a carriage and a horse with which he provided carriage services up and down the mountain. The family worked hard, scrimping and saving every penny so that they could buy a house of their own. When Enza's youngest sister passes away, Ciro is hired to dig the grave. The two are immediately drawn to one another, but fate has different plans for the two. Ciro is sent to America and Enza is left wondering what went wrong. Soon after, Enza and her father also make their way across the ocean in hopes of earning enough to provide for their family back home in Italy.

For Ciro and Enza, life becomes a series of chance meetings and missed opportunities, but love wins out in the end. Theirs is a story of love, family, and honor.

This latest from Trigiani is a sweet story of two people and their dreams. The Shoemaker's Wife is filled with lush imagery and emotion. I thought the author did a fabulous job bringing the reader inside Ciro and Enza's experiences, breathing life into the characters as well as the various settings in a way that sweeps us along with the story. From the mountains of Italy to the budding mining towns of Minnesota, all of the sights and sounds that Ciro and Enza encounter throughout the years of their story came through completely in Trigiani's prose.  

Enza and Ciro's story is both uplifting and heart breaking -- and is based, in part, on Trigiani's own grandparents, an aspect I find makes the book that much more appealing. The new paperback edition includes photos from Trigiani's own family that helped in inspiring The Shoemaker's Wife.

This was my first time reading Trigiani and I'm happy to say that now I understand what all the fuss is about :) I laughed and I cried my way through this book. I also zoomed through it, shutting myself away on Saturday until I read through to the very end!

For more on Trigiani and her work, visit her official website (link above). You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

For more stops on the tour, visit the official TLC tour page here.