Louisa Ermelino: 3 books

 “There is lyricism in the language of Ms. Ermelino’s splendid collection that lulls us, line after seductive line, from the mundane to the menacing. Malafemmena is the work of a bold and original writer.”—Gay Talese   “What Louisa Ermelino knows about the heart could fill...

The Black Madonna has long protected her mountain villagers in southern Italy, and some say she followed her people to America. What else explains the magic and miracles on Spring Street in Little Italy over the decades? Teresa, whose son Nicky should never have walked again after his four-story fall,...

The Mallone sisters look Irish, but don’t let their blue eyes fool you. “It’s all in how you say it,” their grandma Anona proudly says. “Ma-llone is Irish. Mal-lon-e is Italian.” Growing up Italian in the 1920s, in Hell’s Kitchen, an Irish enclave, requires toughness, thrift,...