Leaving Marinella

“Christopher Amato dominates the family saga genre with this century-spanning epic and the legacy of one Sicilian immigrant boy in pursuit of the American dream.” —Niamh McAnally, author of Following Sunshine

A multigenerational family saga that explores immigration in a way that’s both timely and timeless. In 1900, newly orphaned Tommaso is swept up by the mass exodus from Sicily to America. He travels with his father’s friends, but a planned meeting with his uncle in New York never takes place. Eventually, Tommaso is left in a makeshift orphanage in Detroit, where he grows up working as a newsie, a messenger, and a laborer.

Using his Americanized name, Thomas travels to Norfolk, Virginia, settling in an enclave known as Little Sicily. Haunted by loss and dislocation, he rejects the traditions of his homeland and commits himself to becoming American, believing assimilation is the only path forward.

More than a century later, Thomas’s grandson Tony, longing to understand the past, journeys to Sicily. By uncovering his family’s origins, Tony completes a generational circle—embracing a life rooted not in escape but in return.

The author, inspired by his own grandfather, crafts a narrative that engages the reader’s imagination, creating vivid mental images and evoking powerful emotions and experiences. Leaving Marinella serves as a poignant reminder that this story of immigration is as old as humanity itself, transcending both time and geography.