The Family Secret

This book recounts the life history of Giuseppe Giancola and Cleonice Mastrantuoni, two individuals who were born in Italy in the late 19th Century and spent their early years in two very small villages in central Italy, but emigrated early in life to the United States to seek better opportunities for themselves and their families. In the course of describing their journey to America and their efforts to find the perfect place to settle and raise a family, the book emphasizes the ＂family secret＂ of the title and the lengths the couple went to in order to conceal their heritage from all outsiders. The book explains how this pair of hard-working Italian immigrants swore their children to secrecy, causing familial heartache and intra-family conflict for many years until the author, after agonizing conversations with family members, finally pried loose the basic secret and began to unravel the narrative that forms this book.