The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents—moments when ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns.In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity—beautiful, smart, insolent, and probably cursed. Stella uses her toughness to protect her baby sister, Tina, from life’s harshest realities—but she also provokes the ire of her tyrannical father.When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age in a hostile new world. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now elderly Stella and Tina. A richly told debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is a tale of family transgressions as ancient and twisted as the olive branch that could heal them.