Adriana Trigiani's "The Shoemaker's Wife" is one of my all-time favorite books. I was truly looking forward to this one, but unfortunately it didn't quite deliver. I am usually a fan of dual timelines, but I had a difficult time keeping track of all of the characters. In addition, I felt the storyline took off on tangents with certain characters that were not of central to the storyline. There was a lack of depth with the main characters and I was left wanting to know more.

The matriarch of her family, Matelda has never hesitated to make her thoughts and opinions known. As she faces the end of her life, she decides it's time to share a family secret about her mother. The story that unfolds encompasses generations of strong women, who have many of the same questions as Domenica, mother of Matelda, had back when Italy was on the verge of becoming involved in a world war.

I have enjoyed many of this author's books in the past, although it's been some time since I read one. This book did not disappoint, taking the reader from Tuscany to Marseille to Liverpool and more, all while trying to keep family safe and intact. It deals with the fallout this family endured when the Germans sank the British passenger ship the Arandora Star. It educates the reader about the way Italians in England were rounded up and sent to detention camps, like the Japanese here in the US following Pearl Harbor. It teaches us that it's ok to celebrate the living while mourning the dead, and reminds us that family -- even a family with long-held secrets -- is the most important thing of all.

I can never resist a good multigenerational family epic. As the weather turns warmer, I tend to gravitate towards novels set in beautiful far-flung locations, so this story about the Cabrelli family, whose adventures take them from a small Italian coastal town to Marseilles, to Scotland, to Liverpool, was exactly what I needed. It's a beautifully woven and immersive story, full of rich historical details and family secrets. Overall an excellent historical fiction novel, perfect to take along on your summer travels.

A well told story of love, family, heartbreak, and compassion. Although set in modern day, the memory sections take you back in vivid detail to post WWI through the 1980's in Italy, France, and Scotland.. Sit back, relax and get ready to meet a new family.

Adriana Trigiani is one of my favourite authors. The magic of her writing is multifaceted - joyful characters, gorgeous locations and narratives that we can all identify with. Her swooping, intergenerational Italian-American family-based reads are wonderfully immersive and she creates characters I know i'll come to love and cherish. The Good Left Undone absolutely continues Adriana's legacy. We cut back and forth between current day when Matelda reflects back on the lei se has led and gently steering her grand daughter on the right track too. In flashbacks that Matelda tells to her granddaughter we meet Domenica, Matelda's formidable mum who came of age during World War II. We meet her loves, Matelda's father and discover why Matelda has such a distinctly un-Italian name. This is is such a beautiful, magical and uplifting read. Those final pages will stay with me for a long time.

ReLeases 4/26/2011, I read an advanced reader copy. I have read Trigiani’s books off and on for a long time so I was pleased to be able to read this ARC. I like her style of writing and, because her books are character driven, the way she develops those characters layer by layer. This novel does not disappoint. It is a multiple generation tale of an Italian family of gem cutters and jewelry artists that spans from just before WWII to current and from Italy to Scotland and back. Like most of the author’s work, it does not get bogged down in overly dramatized love and lose. It is restrained and has enough historical research to keep it interesting and relevant to the world we live in now…to reinforce that we must not forget totalitarians and dictators and the damage they do to not only their countries but the world.

I enjoyed this book. I have read many of Adriana Trigiani's books and they are all delightful. I loved the history in this one. I also loved how the story wove through all the generations.

Adriana Trigiania create a rich tapestry of a story and then invites readers in to experience the lives of her characters who remind us of our nonna, our mothers, our sisters, our fathers, our friends, Her storytelling weaves rich details, decriptions of the landscape so that we can almost smell the sea air, smell the starched apron or taste the oriecchiette (much like my Nonna's). Reading Trigiani is an experience, more akin to sitting at my family's Sicilian/Scottish dinner table on a Sunday and listening to Nonna tell stories of family, it is familiar, rich in details and satisfying always making the reader want more.

It's been a long time for a new Adriana Trigiani book, but the wait was worth it. With her easy flow storytelling you are transported in time and locations. Her strong female characters are as evident in this books as her past ones. I didn't want The Good Left Undone to be done!

This is Trigiani at her best. This multigenerational story of the women in the Cabrelli family is full of drama secrets and emotion.

Adriana Trigiani has returned to Italy for her multigenerational novel, The Good Left Undone, coming out in April. Meet the women of the Cabrelli family including Matelda Cabrelli Roffo, the family matriarch in the present-day timeline of the story.

Matelda, facing the final years of her life in Viareggio, Italy, decides it is time to part with her family secret about her mother Domenica Cabrelli. Matelda narrates the story of her mother starting in 1920 when Domenica, an intelligent, high energy 11-year-old girl, befriends the town outcast, Silvio. When Silvio is once again attacked by a group of boys and nearly loses his eye this time, Domenica helps the doctor attend to Silvio’s injured face, realizing her purpose in life.

When she is older, Domenica studies to become a nurse, but before her education is complete, she is sent away from Viareggio because a fuss was raised by the Catholic priest when Domenica gives a young mother a pamphlet about birth control. Domenica goes to Marseilles, France, for further training while the situation she created in Viareggio calms down. However, a world war alters her plans completely.

An aspect of World War II that many may not know is that much like the Japanese were interred in camps in America during the war, Italians living in Great Britain were interred in camps there before being removed to other countries. Domenica’s life is drastically changed when one of the ships ferrying the prisoners across the seas is attacked by the Germans. When she is finally able to return home, she will have a new last name and a 6-year-old Matelda.

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of 18 books in fiction and nonfiction. She is also an award-winning film director and screenwriter, playwright, and television writer and producer. She wrote and directed the award-winning major motion picture Big Stone Gap, based on her debut novel, filmed entirely on location in her Virginia hometown. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 27, 2022.

I would like to thank PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

It has to be something really special to standout against the avalanche of WWII historical fiction that hits the market on what feels like a weekly basis, but Trigiani is special on her own. I was interested in reading the latest multi-generational family saga from the author of The Shoemaker's Wife because of how much I adored being sucked into that unique, but still universal story, and I found the Cabrelli family just as easy to root for and feel a part of as any that Trigiani has given us over the years! Being transported to different timelines, and even across countries like France and Scotland and the whirlwind love between Domenica and McVicars were all a big draw, but I only wish the readers were given a bit more in some of these moments. It almost felt like the author had more to the story, but stripped some of the emotion, description and those 'slow down' scenes in order to fit in a limited number of words. Will definitely recommend, but would be a 5-star book for me if we'd had a bit more richness cooked into the drama. Appreciated this historical learning opportunity about the way Scot-Italians were treated during WWII and first time I heard of the Arandora Star tragedy.

I have been a fan of this author for quite some time and this book reminded me why. It follows the story of an Italian family and their experiences over an extended time period. She handles the timeline flawlessly, drawing you in and leaving you wanting to know more.

As Matelda reaches the end of her life, she tries to remember a story she was told as a child. When she can’t remember all the details, she wonders what her family will remember about her, and realizes there is a story that has never been told about her mother, Dominica. A story about her childhood love, and of the father Matelda never met. Matilda’s story and Dominica’s story weave together nicely so you get both stories together. The book kept my interest all the way through.

I really enjoyed this story---a historical saga set in Italy with wonderful descriptions of landscapes, food, families and secrets. I hadn't read Ms. Trigiani in a long time, but I will definitely look forward to her next book.

In a wide reaching family saga, Adriana Trigiana, a master of the genre, takes us to the small town of Viarregio on the Southern coast of Italy. The time period brackets World War 2 and, certainly, the twenties are a more comfortable time to be Italian than during the war. In this close knit community lives the Cabrelli family, artisans in jewelry making. The joy and consensus of the church centered community make it a joyous, if somewhat stifling, place to live.

It is certainly too close for Domenica Cabrelli, headstrong from childhood and always at the ready to fight back for her friends and principals. She is also determined to have a non-traditional life, no large family of children but s career as a nurse. Her gifts are appreciated until she counsels a battered woman on methods of birth control, in direct conflict with the teaching of the church. She is rapidly dispatched to a convent run school in Glasgow, Scotland, where her fate takes an unbelievable turn. The man of her dreams awaits her, but so does the unbearable tragedy of losing him.

Following the war, Domenica returns to her ancestral home bringing her daughter, Matelda, with her. It is Matelda, on her death bed, who is the narrator of a story full of matters of the heart, unexpected conflict, and a peaceful resolution of her life with her importance t the community revealed.

I love Adriana Trigiani. Her stories are always just complex enough, with unexpected twists and turns, to keep the reader engaged to the very end. However, perhaps it is my own creeping age, but I had a difficult time keeping track of which character's story I was following. Since I read an ARC, I would hope that the final printing might have a family tree, a useful way to trace the involvement of the various characters..

Other than that, this is a wonderful entry in the family sage genre. With discussions of precious jewels, sumptuous food, and a mostly loving family, this book will, engage the reader and certainly is appropriate for book club discussions.

"When Domenica had returned to Viareggio last fall with her daughter, it appeared that everything was broken, from the pier, to the roads, to her heart. She found herself tiptoeing around the pieces when she rediscovered the only thing that could make her whole." Nobody weaves a multi-generational saga quite like Adriana Trigiani—with beauty, authenticity, unflinching honesty, and a wide-open heart. Her latest novel sweeps us away to a seaside village in Italy, a convent in Scotland, a military vessel in World War II, and back again. But more than that, it transports us inside the life of one family doing their best to keep hold of one another, stay true to who they are, and leave no GOOD LEFT UNDONE. My deepest thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an early copy via Netgalley: Put this one on your must read list for spring.

Adriana just keeps getting better with every novel. I eagerly await each one. This is a rich family sage covering three generations of Tuscan women and one secret. Matelda, facing life's end is determined to share that secret about her family, and her mother's love story. This story has richly developed characters that you will love and root for. It is a story about love and loss. This book is a real treat.

Adriana Trigiani is such an amazing story teller. This book checks all the boxes. A strong Italian family, the Cabrellis and their even stronger women drive the story to a satisfying conclusion. Matelda is the matriarch who holds the family together, while mourning things over which she has no control. This is also Domenica's story of love and loss, Nicolina and Anina, members of the next generations, also discover how they fit into the family.

Set in Italy, France during WWII, and Scotland, Trigiani makes us feel as if we are right there with the family.

This is an in depth look that shows us what it was like for Italians during WWII. I think this would be a good book club read as it has lots of depth and family histories.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!