Wiseguys in Paradise

Stephen Spotte's bittersweet novel Wiseguys in Paradise opens at the start of the 1960s. An unnamed drifter from southern Appalachia just out of the Army takes a job as dishwasher at an Italian restaurant in Coney Island famous as a gathering place for New York mobsters. The patrons and staff befriend him, and he falls in love with a divorced woman with a young daughter. Wary of commitment, he abandons them and hitchhikes to Key West. From there the story segues between locations as the narrator finds himself immersed in an unlikely community of love and friendship whose members include Mafia wiseguys, other drifters, a Jesuit priest/marine biologist, immigrants, gays, and lesbians. Spotte's regional dialects crackle with authenticity.

Stephen Spotte's other novels include, In an Empty Room, A Conversation with a Cat, The Singing Bones, Animal Wrongs, and Witchy Illusions.