This was a much better read than I was anticipating. It grabs your attention right from the outset, and you find yourself sympathetic to the main character right away. The whole book felt a bit like a foreign film that's subtitled. It's a tough thing to describe, but the language was almost stilted, very much the way someone not a native speaker might put locutions together at times, but just a touch, to make you very aware of the surroundings and customs of the location in which the book is set, a tiny island not far from Sicily, but so sparsely populated that no regular ships service the island, not even a ferry, at first. Catherine Banner skillfully weaves the narrative by focusing each chapter, or section, on a different character, which is also the device for moving time through the story, as well. This gives the book a very organic and granular development, bringing us at last to close to our present day, with nearly a hundred years having passed since the origins of the story described in the first pages. The reader becomes a part of this family, which is inevitable, since there is really only descriptions of other townspeople, through their quirks and attitudes, but virtually none of the characters other than those in the Esposito family hold our attention, or drive the narrative.I really loved the descriptive talent of the author, and find that this read has stayed with me many days after finishing it. It also made me want to hurry to plan my next trip to Italy!