Josephine’s children’s children, and their children in turn, will navigate the rocky waters of the ’60s and ’70s, alternately fleeing and chasing their Italian heritage. There are seven children in all, but we meet some of them only fleetingly. Elisabetta, the smart one, drops out of school and becomes a faculty wife, to a man who spends most of his time studying coeds.

Her son, Carmine, survives World War II, but comes back an emotional casualty. All of them are lost, in one way or another, as they live with their feet in two worlds: the old world that Josephine has never really left, and the mystifying new one, where the family’s ethnic foods and customs are a source of shame and embarrassment to the younger generation. Josephine’s essential tragedy - which we will leave to the reader to discover - is wrapped around the stories of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She immigrates to a world where she will never feel comfortable, settling in an unnamed mill village in Rhode Island where both the language and culture will always remain just beyond her grasp.īut there are many Italian wives in this saga. After an exhausting wedding night in which the groom tries to make sure he has impregnated his young bride, Vincenzo leaves for America, where he will work to establish himself for nine years before finally sending for Josephine. The Italian wife of the title is Josephine, who at 15 is married off to Vincenzo Rimaldi, 11 years her senior.

“An Italian Wife” falls somewhere between - a series of linked stories that, together, have all the gravity and sweep of the most engrossing novel. You might call Ann Hood’s latest book a novel, and you might call it a short story collection.

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