AMY’S STORY: A Novel

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See also: www.annalawton.com

After Elena Ferrante, another powerful Italian voice emerges to tell a gripping story of two women across two continents. A life journey from Italy to the USA. Friendship, love, struggle, and social turmoil, against the background of American history from the 1960s to present.

Amy moves from Italy to New York City to live near her American father, the head of a prestigious publishing house. Her story is intertwined with the story of Stella, whose unfinished memoir Amy intends to publish. Their path runs parallel to the Vietnam War, student protests and the Kent State shooting, hippie culture, the birth of radicalism and feminism, presidential elections and assassinations, the Watergate scandal, up to the 9/11 attack and beyond, providing a commentary on the historical highlights that influenced the development of American society over the past 40 years and brought about the current outcome.

Additional captivating characters complete the picture and sustain the action: Jim, a heartthrob who conceals his sensitive nature under a bravado façade.  Steve, Stella’s husband, conformist and uninspiring; Nik, a passionate and extravagant Russian intellectual; Rosa, once a maid at Amy’s grandmother’s country estate and now married to the owner of a New York pizzeria; and others.

Stella’s memoir never gets published, because Amy transforms it into a very successful novel. This twist will have the reader re-imagine the entire story and see it from a surprising new perspective.

“An intriguing tale with a clever narrative twist.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Amy’s Story is simply spellbinding. This is a story at once about identity, love and social upheaval; a woman’s journey from old world to new; from Italy to America. Mysterious, brave and captivating.”

—Joe McGinniss Jr., author of Carousel Court and The Delivery Man

“Lawton’s characters connect to words with dynamic interactions and intellectual alacrity. This author’s voice manages both the interior lives of her characters and the connective tissue of their worlds. Anna Lawton’s mastery of story orchestrates the best out of ‘situation and plot,’ with a full range of  motion using the entire emotional alphabet.”

—Grace Cavalieri, Producer/host, “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress”

“From the collapsing towers of 9/11 to the lyrical groves of northern Italy, the author ingeniously morphs Amy’s Story into a journey across America and back and forth across time. Along the way we meet a cohort of colorful characters, witness several romances, and there are wars and politics, too—all woven into a mesmerizing narrative that unspools like a good film. Anna Lawton is not only a scholar of the first rank, but a deft and artful novelist with a flair for the unexpected in her work.”

—Louis Menashe, author of Moscow Believes in Tears: Russians and Their Movies

“Anna Lawton’s ear for dialogue is spot on, and she introduces friends, colleagues, events, and geographic changes with assurance. The book is a wonderful summation of North America’s trials and tribulations over the past four decades.”

—San Francisco Book Review

“Amy’s Story by Anna Lawton sets a tempestuous romance against the turbulent half-century of global change that erupted in the 1960s and flowed across the land like a modern Great Flood. The novel plants the seeds of these decades in the post-World War One migration from Europe to the United States and reveals the newest fruits—poison to some, nectar to others—in the closing pages. The private romance and the public turmoil work together to create a story as much about love as it is about progress, about aspiration and success as about longing and loss.”

—Ben East Books

“This story spans the 1930s to the present. Through Stella’s life and loves you get glimpses into different eras by way of significant American political historical happenings. The start is an Italian immigrant experience which I found to be the most interesting.”

—VVB32

“A beautifully written novel about life in the U.S. experienced by an immigrant.”

—The Maggie Linton Show

“It’s a good novel to pack if you’re going on an early vacation or just sitting at home, enjoying the evening air.”

—20 min Live with Peter Solomon – WIP-AM/FM/Philadelphia PA

“It’s a love story!  There’s sex, there’s fun, there’s adventure, there’s grammar.  It would be a very appealing book for the general public.”

—Library of Congress, “The Poet and the Poem”

“Woven together quite expertly.”

—WGTD-FM/Wisconsin Public Radio (NPR)

“The author brings to life a rainbow of characters and adventures that the reader won’t soon forget.”

—iItaly Magazine