Tonio: A Story of Love and Loss

This book asks the question: Would you give up your only child for the promise of immense wealth? Antonio DiVincenzo is a nine year-old boy living with his artist mother in suburban New Jersey when his idyllic life is suddenly and dramatically turned upside down, when his mother abandons him to live in Paris with a French billionaire. His neighbor and adult friend, Abby, who is the book's narrator takes him into her home and her heart. Eventually his biological mother tries to reclaim him and the two women battle for his love. The book tells how Abby reshapes his life and how this exceptionally gifted child copes with both newfound happiness and misfortunes as he passes through childhood, adolescence and eventually into early manhood.

Lois Silver-Avrin lives part-time in New Jersey and part-time in Florida with her husband. She has previously published Thanksgiving Dinner, a book of short stories about women in crisis.