Posts

The Immigrant: An Italian in America(The Italian Saga Series) by Gaia B Amman – Review by Natalie Hanley

The Immigrant. An Italian in AmericaThe Immigrant. An Italian in America by Gaia B. Amman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another fab read by Gaia B Amman. I like how the action starts from page one. There is no long, drawn- out scene setting with these novels and we can immerse ourselves fully into them from the start, whether we are familiar with the Italian Adventure series or whether it is our first read from this writer. This story follows Leda on her year out to America. She has left behind her home comforts, her parents and the brooding Sergio in Italy and is joining the staff of a pioneering cancer research laboratory in Buffalo, New York. There she makes new friends and struggles with the language barrier which she hadn’t really anticipated. Having read some of the other novels in the Italian saga, it was nice to have snippets of other characters who I had read about which made it feel more familiar, but for me the skill is in the author’s incredibly descriptive language.
I really enjoyed this story. Gaia Amman is not afraid to scatter Italian language in the text which is something I love about her books. As a linguist it is refreshing to me. The dilemmas her characters have is also familiar to me as an immigrant in France many years ago, from the misunderstanding of dialect to the small cultural differences that make her new friends laugh. Another 5-star read for me. Look forward to the next. Grazie, Merci, Thank you!

View all my reviews