processes of identity-construction. The authors analysed in this study - Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Sister Blandina Segale, Emanuel Carnevali, John Fante, Jerre Mangione and Pasquale Verdicchio - have found on the written page their true homeland, the place from which to survey critically the North American scene. These authors range from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present and are representative of different social and regional backgrounds, as well as of different facets of hyphenated identity in North America. Reading their works, the author argues, means discovering a significant range of voices and a complex set of cultural issues, that attest to the increasingly rich history and evolution of Italian American literature. This volume also makes available Luigi Palma di Cesnola's important memoir of 1865, "Ten Months in Libby Prison".

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