The Women of Saturn
by Connie Guzzo-McParland
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Pub Date May 15 2017 | Archive Date Jun 15 2017
Description
"Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels meet Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women" in award-winning author Connie Guzzo-McParland’s highly anticipated sophomore novel, THE WOMEN OF SATURN
The follow up to Connie Guzzo-McParland’s debut novel, The Girls of Piazza d’Amore [Linda Leith Publishing, 2013], The Women of Saturn [Inanna Publications, May 15 2017] chronicles the lives of three women of different generations, all living in Montreal in the 1980s, connected and haunted by the same Italian village of their pasts.
When high school teacher Cathy’s estranged childhood friend, Lucia – the protagonist of The Girls of Piazza d’Amore – is found beaten and abandoned in an apparent act of domestic violence, she takes Lucia’s teenage daughter, Angie, into her home. An aspiring writer, Cathy resolves herself to giving Lucia a voice through her writing – and in doing so, relives their journey from Calabria to Canada in 1957, her own family’s difficult years after their arrival in Montreal, and the exhilarating, corruption-ridden period of Expo 67.
Meanwhile, rumors swirl about Lucia’s family’s connections to the Montreal Mafia. Cathy’s live-in boyfriend, Sean sees Angie’s presence in their home as a dangerous liability to his career in federal politics – not helped by the fact that Lucia’s husband, located in Italy, begins to hurl accusations of corruption against Lucia's family and their business partner with ties to the Member of Parliament for whom Sean works. When these revelations are brought to the attention of Montreal tabloid journalist Antoine – Cathy’s former writing mentor, with whom she’s had a problematic relationship since her teens – Cathy becomes yet more determined to connect the village stories of the past with the drama of the present, culminating in a confrontation that will forever change her life.
Gripping and as satisfying as southern Italian cuisine, The Women of Saturn is an important and unforgettable story about the female immigrant experience, and the inescapable impact of the past on our post-modern present. Not to be missed by fans of Elena Ferrante and Alice Munro, The Women of Saturn cements Connie Guzzo-McParland’s status as one of Canadian fiction’s most unique and powerful voices – and will be available for purchase wherever books are sold as of May 2017.
Advance Praise
“The story captivated me from the opening sentence where the heroine of the novel, Cathy Anastasia, recalls how she imagined life through the filter of black-and-white post-war Italian films. Connie Guzzo-McParland has produced a literary novel that is also a page-turner; Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels meet Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women.”
—Mary di Michele, author of Bicycle Thieves
An unusual blend of charm, nostalgia, and grit, The Women of Saturn reprises characters from The Girls of Piazza d’Amore. Authentic in its evocation of mid-twentieth century Italian Montreal, the novel’s preoccupations with domestic violence, cynical politics, and organized crime resonate with topical relevance for contemporary readers. Richly textured and panoramic, The Women of Saturn is an engrossing read.
—Elaine Kalman Naves, author of The Book of Faith
Connie Guzzo-McParland’s new novel is a stirring consideration of culture and politics, of loyalty and loss that is as wide as it is deep, as ambitious as it is intimate. The emphasis, here, may be on three generations of Italian Montrealers, but this is also a story of immigration, one that never ends, as Guzzo-McParland writes. It just comes back around. The Women of Saturn gives us circles within circles. Brava!
— Joel Yanofsky, author of Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism
Marketing Plan
About the Author:
Connie Guzzo-McParland has a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University. Her debut novel, The Girls of Piazza d'Amore, was published in 2013 and shortlisted for the Concordia First Novel Award by the Quebec Writer's Federation. Since 2000, she has been an active member of the Association of Italian Canadian Writers and its secretary until 2012. Since 2011, she has participated in a reading committee set up by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Montreal to award Italy's Strega Prize. In 2010, together with writer and business partner Michael Mirolla, she took the helm of Guernica Editions filling the role of President and Chief Administrator. She lives in Montreal. Her second novel, The Women of Saturn, will be released in April 2017 with Inanna Publications.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781771333573 |
| PRICE | CA$22.95 (CAD) |
