Sarina Amato lives with her family in Vigliatore, Messina She is a fisherman's daughter, a house slave, working non-stop doing the chores ordered by her father. Helping her mother care for the house and her siblings, while receiving abuse from her father is her life. He has become more abusive to her as she gets older, using his belt to hit her across the face and beating her body with no mercy. He also ties her to a tree and leaves her outside all night as a punishment. Her days are grueling and she never stops working. Her only time for herself, is night, when everyone is asleep and she would sneak down to the beach to sing. She loved to sing. She made up songs and staring at the sky filled with stars, she would sing about STELLA MIA, my star. It helped ease her pain but she knew she had to leave home soon and escape from her Papa. His beatings were becoming worse and she was fearful he would kill her.

On her seventeenth birthday, on the feast day of Patron Saint Anthony, Sarina makes her escape. She boards a bus with money stolen from her Papa and heads to the coastal resort town of Taormina. It is the jewel of the Mediterranean but offers Sarina no employment. She lives on the beach there and is taken in by a band of gypsies who teach her to read the Tarot cards and gives them half of her earnings. One day while reading cards for a young man, he tries to rape her and is saved by Carlo, a very handsome, charming man. They are instantly attracted to each other.

One day while visiting, Angela, the owner of the bakery who befriended Sarina when she had no more money and no job, she gave her bread and her friendship. Angela hears that they are looking for a singer at the very opulent Villa Carlotta. Silvano Conti is the owner, mean and a shrewd businessman, but after hearing Sarina sing, he hires her, giving her a room at the Villa and a good salary. She wowed the audiences and business begin to boom as she performed. One night she saw a handsome man watching her from the bar and it was Carlo, who introduced himself as the owner's son. Needless to say, his father would not be pleased with his attraction for Sarina and eventually he discovers their secret. He threatens to disinherit Carlo , tells her they are from two different worlds and convinces her to leave without even a goodbye to Carlo.

Looking at the beautiful cover of STELLA MIA tells it all. Stunning views high above the coastline of Sicily, a romantic table is set with local wine and two glasses waiting for the lovers. The adventure takes us from Taormina to the Aeolian Islands: Isola Bella, Lipari, Panarea, Filicuda to Stromboli. Ms.Chiofalo's descriptions are so vivid and alive you feel the refreshing swims, taste the cold local wine and feast on the fresh baked bread and pastries.

STELLA MIA is a book you can not put down. Love, sacrifice, struggles between mothers and daughters, dreams fulfilled, some unfulfilled, choices that span from Italy, to America and back to Sicily for a bittersweet ending. Fantastico!

Book Summary

Rosanna Chiofalo's poignant, beautifully written new novel evokes the stunning scenery of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands and tells of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice--and the choices that resound across continents and through generations.

Julia Parlatone doesn't have much to remember her Italian mother by. A grapevine that Sarina planted still flourishes in the backyard of Julia's childhood home in Astoria, Queens. And there's a song, "Stella Mia," she recalls her mother singing--my star, my star, you are the most beautiful star--until the day she left three-year-old Julia behind and returned to Italy for good.

Now a happily married school teacher, Julia tries not to dwell on a past she can't change or on a mother who chose to leave. But in an old trunk in the family basement, she discovers items that belonged to her mother--a song book, Tarot cards, a Sicilian folk costume--and a diary. Sarina writes unflinchingly of her harsh childhood and of a first, passionate love affair;of blissful months spent living in the enchanting coastal resort town of Taormina and the unspoiled Aeolian Islands north of Sicily as well as the reasons she came to New York. By the diary's end, Julia knows she must track down her mother in Italy and piece together the rest of the complex, bittersweet truth--a journey that, for better or worse, will change her own life forever.