Kiss Carlo

The novel “Kiss, Carlo!” is a family saga by Adriana Trigiani, author of the bestseller “The Cobbler’s Wife.” 1949, postwar boom in Philadelphia. The company of Domenico Palazzini and his three sons thrives. Their lives are perfect—business is booming, their wives love them, and the family is full of peace and quiet.

But is there peace? A long-standing quarrel between Domenico and his brother Mike split the family into two warring clans, and the feud has not faded with the years. For 16 years, Domenico and Michael have not exchanged even a word.

Nicky is already thirty—Domenico’s right hand—but he dreams of a completely different life: a life on stage. For now, he secretly works for pay in a local theater’s Shakespeare troupe. And one day he will have to make a choice: a respectable but ordinary life, the one the family expects from him, or an entirely new path where he may lose everything.

Adriana Trigiani’s new novel is a story full of warmth, humor, and hope. Like Shakespeare’s plays that form the backdrop of the novel, here old secrets unfold, masks fall, hearts break and reunite, mistakes are corrected, and love triumphs.