Petals in Pastel Water

A chain of enduring love begins on a mountain in old Calabria, Italy, where young Giovanna stands looking west across the sea toward Sicily.

Down in her village, poor but not hungry children chew day-old bread and dried figs as their elders go about daily rituals . . . All under the watchful eye of Brizio, the occasionally benevolent but always dangerous "head" of the local secret society.

On a winter day just after Christmas in the year 1908, all seems normal-at least to most. But Giovanna senses that something is different. She cannot imagine the scope of the upheaval about to come. One that will prepare her to turn turmoil into triumph beyond the mountain.

Spanning the course of the 20th century across an ocean to present day America, author Barbara Táth unfolds the story of the Passaniti-Campolo family. Characterized by struggle and enduring love, three generations of relationships survive natural disaster, secret societies, and human dramas, linking the past in Italy with descendants in America and shaping their destinies.