Three Dreamers: A Memoir of Family by Lorenzo Carcaterra

As nourishing as a three-course Italian feast, this is a fierce, moving tribute to the ties that bind.--People (Book of the Week) The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sleepers offers a heartfelt homage to the women who taught him courage, kindness, and the power of storytelling: his mother, his grandmother, and his late wife. Standing with his children near his grandmother's grave on a recent trip to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, Lorenzo Carcaterra realized how much of his life has been shaped by the women who taught him how to look for joy and overcome sorrow. This book is his tribute to them. Nonna Maria, his grandmother, gave him his first taste of a loving home during the summers he spent with her as a teenager on Ischia. With her kindness, her humor, and the same formidable strength she employed to make secret trips for food when the Nazis occupied Ischia during World War II, she instilled in him the importance of community, providing shelter for a boy whose home life was difficult. His mother, Raffaela, dealt with daily hardships: a loveless and abusive marriage, the burden of debt, and a life of dread. Though the lessons she taught were harsh, they would drive Lorenzo from the world they shared to the better one she always prayed he would find. The third woman is his wife, Susan, a gifted editor and his professional champion. Their marriage lasted three decades before her death from lung cancer in 2013. While their upbringings were wildly different, their love and friendship never wavered--and neither did her faith in Lorenzo's talent and potential as a writer. Editorial Reviews I loved Lorenzo Carcaterra's Three Dreamers, a poignant, unflinching, and uniquely powerful memoir. Carcaterra paints a fascinating, moving, and page-turning portrait of three unforgettable women, each a product of her time, culture, and even location, whether Hell's Kitchen in New York City or the beautiful island of Ischia in Italy. But even more than that, through his transcendent talent, honesty, and emotional intelligence, Carcaterra has created a work that explores what women mean to the men in their lives, writ large. This is a book about love, about family, and about forgiveness. Every mother should read this book.--Lisa Scottoline, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra looks back over his life and writes of the women that shaped his world view. During boyhood summers on Ischia, Lorenzo's Italian grandmother fed him stories and great meals, which built his imagination. His mother, Raffaella, through grief and hardship, sharpened the edges of his ambition, while his wife, Susan, an important journalist, served as the first reader of his bestselling books and a champion of his work. This deeply personal memoir weaves beauty, hilarity, and loss into a glorious tapestry. --Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author Three Dreamers is a stunning triptych--a plaiting together of the lives of three powerful women who, together, have shaped the life and outlook of one man. This beautiful memoir is Lorenzo Carcaterra's tribute to the most important women in his life, and a paean to joy, sorrow, and love.--Elissa Altman, author of Motherland With keen perception and even-keeled acceptance, Carcaterra shares the stories of his grandmother, mother, and wife as he traces how their relationships encouraged him to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.--Booklist A moving tribute . . . With spare yet resounding prose, Carcaterra follows these women from his childhood home in Hell's Kitchen to the Italian island of Ischia, to the battles each of them fought at the end of their lives. This emotional narrative isn't for the fainthearted, but its beauty is a thing to behold.--Publishers Weekly (starred review) Engaging . . . This reflective memoir gives nuance to the dark world [Carcaterra] portrays in his novels.--Library Journal Elegantly and sensitively written, a book that forges strong connections across four generations.--Kirkus Reviews - From the Publisher *04/05/2021 Carcaterra (Sleepers) pays a moving tribute to his grandmother, mother, and wife in this heartfelt account of how they shaped him. A fearless advocate for her family during the Nazi occupation of Naples in WWII, Carcaterra's Nonna Maria lost a son during the invasion and, through her resilience, taught him about courage, forgiveness, and generosity. His mother, Raffaela, however, presented me with a different picture, Carcaterra notes. She stayed married to an abusive husband who'd murdered his first wife and cheated countless people, and her words to me, sometimes kind, often bitter, gave fuel to my desire to live as far from such misery as possible, Carcaterra writes. In 1976, while working at the New York Daily News, Carcaterra met the third woman who would profoundly impact his life: Susan Toepfer, a brilliant editor who became his wife of three decades and mother of his two children. In the book's introduction, Carcaterra reveals that Susan died from the same cancer that took his mother's life. With spare yet resounding prose, Carcaterra follows these women from his childhood home in Hell's Kitchen to the Italian island of Ischia, to the battles each of them fought at the end of their lives. This emotional narrative isn't for the fainthearted, but its beauty is a thing to behold. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (May) - Publishers Weekly 03/01/2021 Known for crime thrillers set in the Italian-American underworld that his father inhabited, Carcaterra tells in this memoir of the women in his life to whom he owes his inspiration and success. His mother and grandmother were from Ischia, off the coast of Naples, and his summers spent there with his grandmother were his one refuge from his parents' disastrous marriage. Having lived through severe privations and strain in World War II, she treats him with a level of respect for his potential that he received nowhere else. His mother's story is chilling, and her relationship with Carcaterra leaves many unanswered questions even as he obviously values it. His wife was a successful newspaper reporter and taught him the art of writing as they fell in love. Their partnership provides the calm missing from his life, and her early death devastates. The author's storytelling is engaging and his love obvious, yet the inner lives and motivations of his subjects remain elusive, beyond their effect on him. VERDICT Fans of Carcaterra's novels and reporting will appreciate the background on his life and inspiration, and this reflective memoir gives nuance to the dark world he portrays in his novels.--Margaret Heller, Loyola Univ. Chicago Libs. - Library Journal 2021-02-06 Carcaterra recounts the lives of three remarkable women in his life. The child of Italian immigrants to New York, Carcaterra returned to his family seat on the island of Ischia when he was 14. The sounds, smells, sights were all foreign, he recalls, but somehow I knew from those very first moments it was a world where I belonged. He fell under the tutelage of a grandmother who could be a touch scary but who offered shelter from his abusive father back home and whose approach to life was utterly practical and consistently charming. Flowery Ischia beckoned each summer, and Carcaterra learned more stories--e.g., about his grandmother's fierce and fearless resistance in the face of the island's Nazi occupiers during World War II. The second strong woman in the story is the author's mother, who bore the death of her first husband and a child with a grim stoicism and sadness that forever haunted her. I would have loved to meet the happy version of my mother....That young woman remains a mystery to me, Carcaterra writes affectingly. He received a glimpse when, working as a fledgling journalist with an editor with whom he would fall in love--his third subject--he wrote a profile of his mother that required her to appear at a photo session. Even though she was mistrustful at first, she shined brightly. The most difficult reading--and likely the most difficult writing for the author--comes with his portrait of that editor, who became his wife (he courted her with a think piece on the Three Stooges). Sadly, she died too young, leaving him with children of his own to continue the legacy: Each time I see them, I hear her voice and I see her smile and I feel her love through them. Elegantly and sensitively written, a book that forges strong connections across four generations. - Kirkus Reviews