Guernica Editions

Fans of Anne Tyler's quirky characters and her attention to family life, or Pete Hamill's depiction of diverse, ethnic, urban neighborhoods will connect to Most Precious Blood, set in the eleventh-hour of a declining Italian-American neighborhood where complex and often destructive loyalties have dire consequences. Hard Luck Lenny is the quintessential good son, brother, and father, and he fears a calamity will derail his son's future the way his own dreams were derailed years ago, but Frankie is preoccupied with thoughts of Gennaro DiCico, the son of a small-time mobster. Lenny's fears are realized when a cabdriver's son avenges his father's murder.

On the Upper East or West Side of Manhattan, Lasante's would be considered a gourmet grocery store. Its tin ceiling and hanging cast-iron fans seen as retro. But at the cross of 91st Avenue and 104th Street in Glenhaven, Queens, it was a vestige for the few Italians who remained in the neighborhood, and for their adult children who drove in from Long Island before holidays and special occasions to reclaim some remote flavor of ethnicity.

Awards

• IPPY Book Awards: Best First Book - Fiction (Silver Medal)
• CNY Book Awards (shortlisted)

Reviews

• Homeland Insecurities
  Cardyn Brooks Reviews - February 11, 2018
• Lennie & Frankie's Neighborhood
  Ezra Dan Feldman - May 17, 2018
• Family Feuds
  Casey Rose Frank - May 18, 2018
• Celebrating A Father's Fierce Love
  Kirkus Reviews - December 20, 2019