ladyr 's review for:

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames

2.0

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This is a sprawling epic of life in an Italian-American immigrant family spread across 100 years & is unusual in that it is a fictionalised account of the author’s own family.

Told entirely from the third person perspective (which I found very hard to emotionally connect with) with occasional modern-day interruptions (which I found jolting and interrupted the reading flow) from the author we follow Stella Fortuna from her childhood in a hilltop village in Rural Italy to her life in America.

As the title suggests a series of near-death experiences occur to Stella throughout her years and the re-telling of these are interspersed with love, bitter feuds and family rivalries along with pasta, Italian curses and superstitions!

Despite the rather attractive cover this book covers some very dark themes and is a clear portrayal of hardships, particularly those endured by women over the years.
It definitely needs trigger warnings: for rape, abuse and incest among others.

Sadly this was not for me but I recognise I am largely in the minority.