United States, Contemporary, fiction 

In this magical and moving first novel, Tina De Rosa draws her reader deep into the world of an Italian-American family and community. Set on the West Side of Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s, Paper Fish is populated not by wiseguys or madonnas, but by hard-working immigrants whose heroism lies in their quiet, sometimes tragic humanity.At the center of the novel is young Carmolina, who is torn between the bonds of the past and the pull of the future - a need for family and a yearning for independence. As Carmolina's story unfolds, it comes to contain many other narratives: memories and legends from the old country, passed on by her wise and loving grandmother Doria; the courtship tale of her father, an Italian-American policeman with a gentle heart and an artist's soul, and her mother, a lonely Lithuanian-American waitress; and the painful story of Dorina, her beautiful but silent sister. - from Amzon