Why a Booktrail?
1900s onwards: Follow the fate of Stella and her sister throughout their lives
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
What you need to know before your trail
Mariastella Fortuna, known as Stella, was born into rural poverty in a Calabrian village in the early 20th century. After being abandoned by their father, who left to seek his fortune in L’America, Stella grew up with her beloved mother Assunta, her brothers Giuseppe and Luigi and her sister Tina. Tough, vivacious, and fiercely loyal, the sisters were inseparable, going on to support each other through immigration, marriage, children, loss – and the seven (or eight) near-death experiences Stella suffered throughout her life.
Beginning in their childhood with the time she was burned by frying oil, Assunta became convinced that her eldest daughter was cursed, a victim of the Evil Eye or a malevolent ghost. But after Stella woke up from ‘The Accident’, an eighth brush with death, it was Tina who she refused to speak to. Now the sisters have not spoken in thirty years.
Determined to solve the mystery of this falling out, it’s up to the family historian to connect the inexplicable dots in Stella’s dramatic story, and to suggest, redemption of the battle-scarred and misunderstood woman who has lived her life with a fire inside her which could not be put out.
Travel Guide
Travel BookTrail style to Calabria in Italy
Most of the novel is set here and even the parts set in NYC take their cue and history from the time spent and formed in Calabria. This is a story of the region and towns as much as it is about the characters themselves. There’s plenty of history and atmosphere evoked around the region:
“Calabria is a land of improbable mountaintop towns like Levoli, their streets so steep that to walk up them is nearly to crawl on one’s hands and knees. The Calabresi built these inaccessible villages defensively. For two thousand years, Calabria was besieged – by Romans who stripped away all her timber; Byzantines, who made the who region Orthodox; North African Saracens, who made it Muslim; castle building Normans, who made it catholic; Bourbons Agevins, Hasburgs; and finally, Italians.”
Then one line which seems to reflect the life of Stella and her family:
“The Calebresi carry on, unmoved, among these remnants of past conquerors, for they have never been masters of their own homeland.”
NYC
The story then moves to New York and America, the land of the free and the land where they hope to create a new life. The neighbourhood of little Italy is nicely evoked and there are museums and places of interest that even now you can visit to understand this community. What must it have been like to newly arrive in a country and miss your homeland?
Booktrailer Review
Booktrail review of Stella Fortuna
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
Destination: Calabria Author/guide: Juliet Grames Departure Time: 1900s onwards
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
