The Good Left Undone
by Dutton
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"[An] immersive saga. . . . A celebration of family and a paean to the power of storytelling.”—People, "Book of the Week"
"Trigiani conveys the beauty of Italy, the hardships of war, the taste of family recipes, and the enduring love of family."—Library Journal (starred)
“The beauty of any book by Adriana Trigiani is her ability to interweave life and fiction. . . . Don’t miss your chance to take this unforgettable journey with the Cabrelli women!” —Lisa Wingate, Book of the Month
From “a master of visual and palpable detail” (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.
Matelda, the Cabrelli family’s matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother’s great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. . . .
In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home becomes unsafe when Italy teeters on the brink of World War II. Her journey takes her from the rocky shores of Marseille to the mystical beauty of Scotland to the dangers of wartime Liverpool—where Italian Scots are imprisoned without cause—as Domenica experiences love, loss, and grief while she longs for home. A hundred years later, her daughter, Matelda, and her granddaughter, Anina, face the same big questions about life and their family’s legacy, while Matelda contemplates what is worth fighting for. But Matelda is running out of time, and the two timelines intersect and weave together in unexpected and heartbreaking ways that lead the family to shocking revelations and, ultimately, redemption.Praise for The Good Left Undone
“The Good Left Undone is deliciously told, with fully explored characters, mouthwatering descriptions of Italian food, and charming yet quirky towns. What’s exceptional about the novel is how seamlessly she knits together different stories from many places and times, bringing it all together in one poignant and satisfying book. This is a gorgeously written story about intergenerational love and heartbreak, the futility of regret and the power of a life well lived. It’s also a love letter to Italy and its beautiful and painful history.”
—BookPage (starred)
“The beauty of any book by Adriana Trigiani is her ability to interweave life and fiction. This book is immersive, but it will also have you pausing to consider your own ancestors… or to seek them out. It’s a testimony to the power of family and history, to the value of understanding where we came from. This epic tale is at once real and hopeful, filled with adventure, and yes… stories. Don’t miss your chance to take this unforgettable journey with the Cabrelli women!”
—Lisa Wingate, Book of the Month
"The Good Left Undone is a poignant expose on the value of the unsung heroes in a multigenerational, working-class family, and through the power of story, author Adriana Trigiani reminds us that our own family stories are important."
—The New York Journal of Books
"This exploration of family history is sensational and leaves the reader wanting to dive into their own familial past. Trigiani works her magic in delivering a drama that enthralls with touches of romance, humor, and humanity. There's a reason this Virginia author is so beloved by her readers and her peers."
—Virginia Living, "Favorite Books 2022"
“Based on a true story, this dual-timeline saga spans 100 years while chronicling four generations of strong, fierce Italian women and their loves, losses, secrets and heartaches."
—She Reads, "Best Book Club Picks of 2022"
"[A] captivating historical novel."
—Bustle
"An enthralling story."
—Veranda
“[A] captivating page-turner.”
—Woman's World
“Adriana Trigiani never fails to sweep you away with her richly transportive prose. The Good Left Undone takes you through time and across the globe from the Italian coast to the Scottish Highlands as long-held secrets of the Cabrelli family come to light. An emotional and beautiful tale of family, love, and loss.”
—Taylor Jenkins Reid
“The Good Left Undone is a sprawling, majestic historical fiction feast that spans countries and generations to find the heart and soul of a beautiful family. This is Adriana Trigiani at her best.”
—Laura Dave
“The Good Left Undone is at once epic and intimate, a delightful novel about the mysterious lore of an unforgettable Italian family whose characters walk right off the page.”
—Jess Walter
“Adriana Trigiani is a gifted, natural storyteller and The Good Left Undone is her at the top of her game. This beautiful, sweeping historical epic about three generations of women paints an exquisite portrait of love, loss, the ravages of time and the price a family pays for its secrets. Brava!”
—Kristin Hannah
"An epic multigenerational love story. . . . Trigiani's adept character portrayals, deliciously described settings, and carefully considered details build momentum and intrigue from beginning to end."
—Kirkus Reviews
"In The Good Left Undone, master storyteller Adriana Trigiani gifts us with an immersive epic that follows one family through generations and across the world. With her trademark humor and eye for detail, Adriana weaves a warm, rich, and majestic tapestry of matriarchs, secrets, and delights. No one with a beating heart will be able to resist the Cabrelli family, or soon forget their love or resilience—proof of Adriana's wisdom that 'a family is only as strong as their stories'."
—Qian Julie Wang
“Sweeping epic. . . . One to savor.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An immersive multigenerational saga that centers around the women in one family in a seaside town. . . . A must for women's fiction collections.”
—Booklist
"There are many reasons to love this novel—the incredible characters, the rich family history woven throughout, the beautiful setting—but first among them is the story that Trigiani tells."
—Bookreporter
"Reading an Adriana Trigiani book is like having an intimate conversation with a good friend. The Good Left Undone is a beautifully rendered love letter to several generations of Italian women as they navigate war, tragedy, love, and missed opportunities through interwoven stories that lay bare the soul of a single working-class family."
—The Week, “Emily Giffin’s 6 favorite books for those who love uncovering secrets”
“Adriana Trigiani is a treasure and The Good Left Undone is a gem: a sweeping epic that spans a century. Chronicling the fallout from the cataclysmic sinking of the Arandora Star — torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1940 — this extraordinary novel manages to mourn the dead, celebrate the living, and remind us that every family has secrets that are heartbreaking, heartwarming, and (yes) inspiring.”
—Chris Bohjalian
"Trigiani writes an unforgettable historical epic in Italy, France, Scotland and Churchill's England on the cusp of World War II. Matelda Cabrelli Roffo, the matriarch of her contemporary Italian family is determined to reveal her mother's secret past before it's too late. This rich family story is magnificient in the telling."
—Lisa Jewell
“The Good Left Undone is a wondrous novel of storytelling, love, war, religion and that which defines us all: family. Adriana Trigiani has outdone herself with her sharp eye, her humor and her warm and generous heart.”
—Elin Hilderbrand
“The Good Left Undone is an exquisite gem of a novel, as it flits between present day and the calamitous times of World War II. No one does historical fiction better than Trigiani. You will fall in love with the characters, especially Matelda Roffo. Godere!”
—David Baldacci
“The Good Left Undone is a wildly entertaining story about the life of the remarkable Italian nurse Domenica Cabrelli and her daughter Matelda. The novel is a wonderful love story, rife with sea captains and childhood sweethearts and a family that never gives up on one another. I adored it.”
—Ann Napolitano
“Adriana Trigiani has written the triumph of her career in this historical epic. This novel is the dramatic, emotional, and profound saga of three generations of women in the Cabrelli family of gemcutters—Domenica, Matelda, and Anina—and each character is more brilliant than the last. This novel shines like a flawless diamond, with a multifaceted narrative that shifts seamlessly between Viareggio, Marseilles, and Scotland, bringing to light a sweep of history that I never knew existed. Most of all, at its core is the generous, beating heart of family – and a love story that will seep into your soul. I have always loved Adriana Trigiani’s books, but The Good Left Undone is a crown jewel of historical fiction.”
–Lisa Scottoline
"This beautifully written, immersive novel gripped me from the first page and didn’t let go. In The Good Left Undone, Adriana Trigani sweeps you up and takes you on an epic journey both geographically and emotionally in a story about love, grief and the heartbreaking secrets woven into the tapestry of every family. Trigani's evocative, richly textured prose conjures a fully-realised world with characters and situations that you feel acutely invested in - the cast of strong female characters resonated with me in ways I didn’t imagine and as I turned the last page I didn’t want this book to end. An emotional rollercoaster of a read, it's a book that you’ll need tissues for, but also one that brings immense joy. A must-read for 2022."
—Sarah Pearse
“A big-hearted writer who tells big stories.”
—Jeanette Walls, Virginia Living
“Adriana Trigiani reshapes the words of Phillip Larkin – ‘the good not done, the love not given, the time torn off unused’ -- as a focal point for a wonderfully agile novel that rounds off the sharp edges of our times."
—Colum McCann
“I can lie on my couch and travel the world – and through time – reading Adriana Trigiani’s The Good Left Undone. Italy, France, Scotland. 1920s to the present. Her storytelling is genius. Her understanding of love and family moves me to tears.”
—Delia Ephron
“From time to time, readers are fortunate enough to come across a novel that transports us so completely to a different time and place, we can smell the air, taste the food. The Good Left Undone is such a book: the power and the beauty of Italy and the Italians, the devastation of wars and callous disregard for humans, the love of life and others; all come across in this exquisite novel. Trigiani has accomplished a true miracle.”
—W. Bruce Cameron
“This master storyteller has outdone herself with The Good Left Undone. What an epic, wonderful sprawling novel, her writing lush and luminous as she draws us into the world of three generations of women with her signature warmth, humor and huge heart. There is no-one like Adriana, and here she is at her absolute best.”
—Jane Green
"Family secrets, family jealousies, across the generations, across the landscapes under the Tuscan sun, the charm of Marseille and the rugged beauty of Scotland, Domenica creates a legacy for her children and grandchildren to unravel. Adriana is, indeed, a storyteller second to none."
—Heather Morris
"Adriana Trigiani knows that a great life is made up of memories and morsels: Kisses and cakes; heartbreak and honey salves. In The Good Left Undone, Trigiani’s women share secrets in the safety of kitchens, are carried off to bed during war, fight to keep a sense of themselves, and appreciate that a first love that arrives second is the sweetest and most substantial of all."
—Helen Ellis
“In The Good Left Undone, Adriana Trigiani once again proves her mastery at breaking your heart, and then mending it together again. Writing of strong women, steadfast loves, settings that whisk you away, and the legacy of the Cabrelli family, this is Trigiani at her finest. Sweeping yet intimate, The Good Left Undone is a love letter to matriarchs everywhere—prepare to be dazzled.”
—Karma Brown
“With its epic sweep, radiant characters, and uncommon insight, The Good Left Undone expertly spans generations and geography, luring the reader into a world where family love and family legacy are both a gift and an inspiration.”
—Lisa Grunwald
“Adriana Trigiani’s latest novel is a delicious immersion into a hidden Italy, a world of Vatican jewelers, of ledgers, maps and strega, of people who tell time by the ‘bells and the baker,’ and are connected to their history and to the far corners of the spinning globe by love, blood, and rubies. And that’s just the first course of this literary feast, that is also a profound meditation on old age and an intimate conversation between generations of a quietly dazzling family.”
—Alice Randall
“This book had me at Italian food and jewelry! Full disclosure, I’m a huge fan of the novels of Adriana Trigiani, as they are always just what the literary doctor orders when I need to escape my modern life of email and carb-counting. The way she combines the sensual pleasure of homemade food and the complications of family drama (and comedy!) delights me. Adriana is like what would happen if Jane Austen and Nora Ephron had a baby. The Good Left Undone was, for me, her most satisfying novel yet because its themes of family loyalty, true love, and the possibility of forgiveness felt so inspiring to me at this strange time. Treat yourself to this vivid, dazzling, un-put-downable read that will take you away from ordinary cares and plunge you into the richly detailed world of a charming Italian village overlooking the sea. And the best news is, any carbs eaten while under the heady influence of The Good Left Undone completely do not count! And even if they do, who cares, it’s worth it, as is this gorgeous treat of a book.”
—Cathryn Michon
“It’s impossible not to be absolutely enthralled by the latest immersive Trigiani masterwork about family, food (oh my God, so delicious), loyalty and legacy. A story bristling with so much generous life, you’ll swear you are there for all of it: the great loves, the unfathomable losses, the betrayals and the secrets of the artisan Cabrelli family, especially with matriarch Matelda, caught between the end of her own life, the beginning of her granddaughter Anina’s, and the dramatic, love-torn and war-torn life her mother Domenica had led. Spanning Italy, France and England, and decades, The Good Left Undone is thrilling proof that, ‘A family is only as strong as their stories.’”
—Caroline Leavitt
“Trigiani weaves a history of generations of a family with the skill andbrilliance of a high-wire artist.”
—Fannie Flagg
“A complex and absorbing reminder of the connection and grounding offamily, the stories that bind us, and the resilience of love amidst thedevastation of war.”
—Lee Woodruff
“The Good Left Undone is as exquisite as the jewels the Cabrelli family creates. The breadth of the story, Trigiani's trademark humor, and emotional depth is a memento mori. What a gift for us who now truly contemplate our mortality to follow Matelda Roffo as she contemplates her life and its meaning. Trigiani writes, ‘A family is only as strong as their stories.’ This family is made of iron.”
—Susan Fales-Hill
“A gorgeous and lush multi-generational epic about the Cabrellis, a vibrant Italian family descended from master jewelers, from the harrowing days leading up to WWII to the modern era, celebrating the pieces they create and the myths that power them and hold families together; an absolute triumph from Adriana Trigiani.”
—Gigi Levangie
"Trigiani has written an enthralling epic full of the heartache of war, hardship, and lost love. But the novel is also shot through with the overwhelming beauty of the world: an aventurine watch, a fresh bombolone, a stretch of Italian coast and, just as beautiful, the power of loyalty, courage, and love. The Good Left Undone shines not like the expertly-cut rubies of the Cabrellis. It shines like a roaring fire in the family’s hearth, warming and sustaining the reader in difficult times."
—Stacey Swann
"Trigiani’s done it again! A sweeping, deeply affecting novel that straddles many countries — Scotland, France, and of course, la Bella Italy — as the indelible, indomitable women of the Cabrelli clan bear witness to the rise of fascism and its devastating consequences, and a century of family passions and conflicts. With her trademark wit and verve, Trigiani illustrates how the ghosts of the past always haunt the present, and how their stories demand to be told. Brava.”
—Kate Walbert
“The Good Left Undone grabbed my heart and refused to let go. I fell in love with Adriana’s characters, and laughed and cried with them. You’ll adore Italy in the 1940s: it’s such a brilliant, wonderful escape.”
—Mary BlyAdriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Shoemaker’s Wife. Her books have been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. Among her screen credits, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture adaptation of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she co-founded the Origin Project. Trigiani is proud to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in New York City with her family.
"[An] immersive saga. . . . A celebration of family and a paean to the power of storytelling.”—People, "Book of the Week"
"Trigiani conveys the beauty of Italy, the hardships of war, the taste of family recipes, and the enduring love of family."—Library Journal (starred)
“The beauty of any book by Adriana Trigiani is her ability to interweave life and fiction. . . . Don’t miss your chance to take this unforgettable journey with the Cabrelli women!” —Lisa Wingate, Book of the Month
From “a master of visual and palpable detail” (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.
Matelda, the Cabrelli family’s matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother’s great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. . . .
In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home becomes unsafe when Italy teeters on the brink of World War II. Her journey takes her from the rocky shores of Marseille to the mystical beauty of Scotland to the dangers of wartime Liverpool—where Italian Scots are imprisoned without cause—as Domenica experiences love, loss, and grief while she longs for home. A hundred years later, her daughter, Matelda, and her granddaughter, Anina, face the same big questions about life and their family’s legacy, while Matelda contemplates what is worth fighting for. But Matelda is running out of time, and the two timelines intersect and weave together in unexpected and heartbreaking ways that lead the family to shocking revelations and, ultimately, redemption.Praise for The Good Left Undone
“The Good Left Undone is deliciously told, with fully explored characters, mouthwatering descriptions of Italian food, and charming yet quirky towns. What’s exceptional about the novel is how seamlessly she knits together different stories from many places and times, bringing it all together in one poignant and satisfying book. This is a gorgeously written story about intergenerational love and heartbreak, the futility of regret and the power of a life well lived. It’s also a love letter to Italy and its beautiful and painful history.”
—BookPage (starred)
“The beauty of any book by Adriana Trigiani is her ability to interweave life and fiction. This book is immersive, but it will also have you pausing to consider your own ancestors… or to seek them out. It’s a testimony to the power of family and history, to the value of understanding where we came from. This epic tale is at once real and hopeful, filled with adventure, and yes… stories. Don’t miss your chance to take this unforgettable journey with the Cabrelli women!”
—Lisa Wingate, Book of the Month
"The Good Left Undone is a poignant expose on the value of the unsung heroes in a multigenerational, working-class family, and through the power of story, author Adriana Trigiani reminds us that our own family stories are important."
—The New York Journal of Books
"This exploration of family history is sensational and leaves the reader wanting to dive into their own familial past. Trigiani works her magic in delivering a drama that enthralls with touches of romance, humor, and humanity. There's a reason this Virginia author is so beloved by her readers and her peers."
—Virginia Living, "Favorite Books 2022"
“Based on a true story, this dual-timeline saga spans 100 years while chronicling four generations of strong, fierce Italian women and their loves, losses, secrets and heartaches."
—She Reads, "Best Book Club Picks of 2022"
"[A] captivating historical novel."
—Bustle
"An enthralling story."
—Veranda
“[A] captivating page-turner.”
—Woman's World
“Adriana Trigiani never fails to sweep you away with her richly transportive prose. The Good Left Undone takes you through time and across the globe from the Italian coast to the Scottish Highlands as long-held secrets of the Cabrelli family come to light. An emotional and beautiful tale of family, love, and loss.”
—Taylor Jenkins Reid
“The Good Left Undone is a sprawling, majestic historical fiction feast that spans countries and generations to find the heart and soul of a beautiful family. This is Adriana Trigiani at her best.”
—Laura Dave
“The Good Left Undone is at once epic and intimate, a delightful novel about the mysterious lore of an unforgettable Italian family whose characters walk right off the page.”
—Jess Walter
“Adriana Trigiani is a gifted, natural storyteller and The Good Left Undone is her at the top of her game. This beautiful, sweeping historical epic about three generations of women paints an exquisite portrait of love, loss, the ravages of time and the price a family pays for its secrets. Brava!”
—Kristin Hannah
"An epic multigenerational love story. . . . Trigiani's adept character portrayals, deliciously described settings, and carefully considered details build momentum and intrigue from beginning to end."
—Kirkus Reviews
"In The Good Left Undone, master storyteller Adriana Trigiani gifts us with an immersive epic that follows one family through generations and across the world. With her trademark humor and eye for detail, Adriana weaves a warm, rich, and majestic tapestry of matriarchs, secrets, and delights. No one with a beating heart will be able to resist the Cabrelli family, or soon forget their love or resilience—proof of Adriana's wisdom that 'a family is only as strong as their stories'."
—Qian Julie Wang
“Sweeping epic. . . . One to savor.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An immersive multigenerational saga that centers around the women in one family in a seaside town. . . . A must for women's fiction collections.”
—Booklist
"There are many reasons to love this novel—the incredible characters, the rich family history woven throughout, the beautiful setting—but first among them is the story that Trigiani tells."
—Bookreporter
"Reading an Adriana Trigiani book is like having an intimate conversation with a good friend. The Good Left Undone is a beautifully rendered love letter to several generations of Italian women as they navigate war, tragedy, love, and missed opportunities through interwoven stories that lay bare the soul of a single working-class family."
—The Week, “Emily Giffin’s 6 favorite books for those who love uncovering secrets”
“Adriana Trigiani is a treasure and The Good Left Undone is a gem: a sweeping epic that spans a century. Chronicling the fallout from the cataclysmic sinking of the Arandora Star — torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1940 — this extraordinary novel manages to mourn the dead, celebrate the living, and remind us that every family has secrets that are heartbreaking, heartwarming, and (yes) inspiring.”
—Chris Bohjalian
"Trigiani writes an unforgettable historical epic in Italy, France, Scotland and Churchill's England on the cusp of World War II. Matelda Cabrelli Roffo, the matriarch of her contemporary Italian family is determined to reveal her mother's secret past before it's too late. This rich family story is magnificient in the telling."
—Lisa Jewell
“The Good Left Undone is a wondrous novel of storytelling, love, war, religion and that which defines us all: family. Adriana Trigiani has outdone herself with her sharp eye, her humor and her warm and generous heart.”
—Elin Hilderbrand
“The Good Left Undone is an exquisite gem of a novel, as it flits between present day and the calamitous times of World War II. No one does historical fiction better than Trigiani. You will fall in love with the characters, especially Matelda Roffo. Godere!”
—David Baldacci
“The Good Left Undone is a wildly entertaining story about the life of the remarkable Italian nurse Domenica Cabrelli and her daughter Matelda. The novel is a wonderful love story, rife with sea captains and childhood sweethearts and a family that never gives up on one another. I adored it.”
—Ann Napolitano
“Adriana Trigiani has written the triumph of her career in this historical epic. This novel is the dramatic, emotional, and profound saga of three generations of women in the Cabrelli family of gemcutters—Domenica, Matelda, and Anina—and each character is more brilliant than the last. This novel shines like a flawless diamond, with a multifaceted narrative that shifts seamlessly between Viareggio, Marseilles, and Scotland, bringing to light a sweep of history that I never knew existed. Most of all, at its core is the generous, beating heart of family – and a love story that will seep into your soul. I have always loved Adriana Trigiani’s books, but The Good Left Undone is a crown jewel of historical fiction.”
–Lisa Scottoline
"This beautifully written, immersive novel gripped me from the first page and didn’t let go. In The Good Left Undone, Adriana Trigani sweeps you up and takes you on an epic journey both geographically and emotionally in a story about love, grief and the heartbreaking secrets woven into the tapestry of every family. Trigani's evocative, richly textured prose conjures a fully-realised world with characters and situations that you feel acutely invested in - the cast of strong female characters resonated with me in ways I didn’t imagine and as I turned the last page I didn’t want this book to end. An emotional rollercoaster of a read, it's a book that you’ll need tissues for, but also one that brings immense joy. A must-read for 2022."
—Sarah Pearse
“A big-hearted writer who tells big stories.”
—Jeanette Walls, Virginia Living
“Adriana Trigiani reshapes the words of Phillip Larkin – ‘the good not done, the love not given, the time torn off unused’ -- as a focal point for a wonderfully agile novel that rounds off the sharp edges of our times."
—Colum McCann
“I can lie on my couch and travel the world – and through time – reading Adriana Trigiani’s The Good Left Undone. Italy, France, Scotland. 1920s to the present. Her storytelling is genius. Her understanding of love and family moves me to tears.”
—Delia Ephron
“From time to time, readers are fortunate enough to come across a novel that transports us so completely to a different time and place, we can smell the air, taste the food. The Good Left Undone is such a book: the power and the beauty of Italy and the Italians, the devastation of wars and callous disregard for humans, the love of life and others; all come across in this exquisite novel. Trigiani has accomplished a true miracle.”
—W. Bruce Cameron
“This master storyteller has outdone herself with The Good Left Undone. What an epic, wonderful sprawling novel, her writing lush and luminous as she draws us into the world of three generations of women with her signature warmth, humor and huge heart. There is no-one like Adriana, and here she is at her absolute best.”
—Jane Green
"Family secrets, family jealousies, across the generations, across the landscapes under the Tuscan sun, the charm of Marseille and the rugged beauty of Scotland, Domenica creates a legacy for her children and grandchildren to unravel. Adriana is, indeed, a storyteller second to none."
—Heather Morris
"Adriana Trigiani knows that a great life is made up of memories and morsels: Kisses and cakes; heartbreak and honey salves. In The Good Left Undone, Trigiani’s women share secrets in the safety of kitchens, are carried off to bed during war, fight to keep a sense of themselves, and appreciate that a first love that arrives second is the sweetest and most substantial of all."
—Helen Ellis
“In The Good Left Undone, Adriana Trigiani once again proves her mastery at breaking your heart, and then mending it together again. Writing of strong women, steadfast loves, settings that whisk you away, and the legacy of the Cabrelli family, this is Trigiani at her finest. Sweeping yet intimate, The Good Left Undone is a love letter to matriarchs everywhere—prepare to be dazzled.”
—Karma Brown
“With its epic sweep, radiant characters, and uncommon insight, The Good Left Undone expertly spans generations and geography, luring the reader into a world where family love and family legacy are both a gift and an inspiration.”
—Lisa Grunwald
“Adriana Trigiani’s latest novel is a delicious immersion into a hidden Italy, a world of Vatican jewelers, of ledgers, maps and strega, of people who tell time by the ‘bells and the baker,’ and are connected to their history and to the far corners of the spinning globe by love, blood, and rubies. And that’s just the first course of this literary feast, that is also a profound meditation on old age and an intimate conversation between generations of a quietly dazzling family.”
—Alice Randall
“This book had me at Italian food and jewelry! Full disclosure, I’m a huge fan of the novels of Adriana Trigiani, as they are always just what the literary doctor orders when I need to escape my modern life of email and carb-counting. The way she combines the sensual pleasure of homemade food and the complications of family drama (and comedy!) delights me. Adriana is like what would happen if Jane Austen and Nora Ephron had a baby. The Good Left Undone was, for me, her most satisfying novel yet because its themes of family loyalty, true love, and the possibility of forgiveness felt so inspiring to me at this strange time. Treat yourself to this vivid, dazzling, un-put-downable read that will take you away from ordinary cares and plunge you into the richly detailed world of a charming Italian village overlooking the sea. And the best news is, any carbs eaten while under the heady influence of The Good Left Undone completely do not count! And even if they do, who cares, it’s worth it, as is this gorgeous treat of a book.”
—Cathryn Michon
“It’s impossible not to be absolutely enthralled by the latest immersive Trigiani masterwork about family, food (oh my God, so delicious), loyalty and legacy. A story bristling with so much generous life, you’ll swear you are there for all of it: the great loves, the unfathomable losses, the betrayals and the secrets of the artisan Cabrelli family, especially with matriarch Matelda, caught between the end of her own life, the beginning of her granddaughter Anina’s, and the dramatic, love-torn and war-torn life her mother Domenica had led. Spanning Italy, France and England, and decades, The Good Left Undone is thrilling proof that, ‘A family is only as strong as their stories.’”
—Caroline Leavitt
“Trigiani weaves a history of generations of a family with the skill andbrilliance of a high-wire artist.”
—Fannie Flagg
“A complex and absorbing reminder of the connection and grounding offamily, the stories that bind us, and the resilience of love amidst thedevastation of war.”
—Lee Woodruff
“The Good Left Undone is as exquisite as the jewels the Cabrelli family creates. The breadth of the story, Trigiani's trademark humor, and emotional depth is a memento mori. What a gift for us who now truly contemplate our mortality to follow Matelda Roffo as she contemplates her life and its meaning. Trigiani writes, ‘A family is only as strong as their stories.’ This family is made of iron.”
—Susan Fales-Hill
“A gorgeous and lush multi-generational epic about the Cabrellis, a vibrant Italian family descended from master jewelers, from the harrowing days leading up to WWII to the modern era, celebrating the pieces they create and the myths that power them and hold families together; an absolute triumph from Adriana Trigiani.”
—Gigi Levangie
"Trigiani has written an enthralling epic full of the heartache of war, hardship, and lost love. But the novel is also shot through with the overwhelming beauty of the world: an aventurine watch, a fresh bombolone, a stretch of Italian coast and, just as beautiful, the power of loyalty, courage, and love. The Good Left Undone shines not like the expertly-cut rubies of the Cabrellis. It shines like a roaring fire in the family’s hearth, warming and sustaining the reader in difficult times."
—Stacey Swann
"Trigiani’s done it again! A sweeping, deeply affecting novel that straddles many countries — Scotland, France, and of course, la Bella Italy — as the indelible, indomitable women of the Cabrelli clan bear witness to the rise of fascism and its devastating consequences, and a century of family passions and conflicts. With her trademark wit and verve, Trigiani illustrates how the ghosts of the past always haunt the present, and how their stories demand to be told. Brava.”
—Kate Walbert
“The Good Left Undone grabbed my heart and refused to let go. I fell in love with Adriana’s characters, and laughed and cried with them. You’ll adore Italy in the 1940s: it’s such a brilliant, wonderful escape.”
—Mary BlyAdriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Shoemaker’s Wife. Her books have been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. Among her screen credits, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture adaptation of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she co-founded the Origin Project. Trigiani is proud to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in New York City with her family.
CHAPTER 2
The village of Viareggio was set on the shores of the Liguarian Sea, on the cusp of Il Tirreno Mare, south of the Gulf of Genoaand north of the Amalfi coast. The candy-colored villas with a view of the sea were shaded by a grove of pine trees with tall, spindly trunks topped by bouffants of green foliage. Viareggio Beach unfurled on the west coast of Italy like a rope of emeralds.
The scents of charred eucalyptus wood and sulfur lingered inthe air as Matelda climbed the rickety steps to the boardwalk. Carnevale had officially ended the night before when the fireworks turned to ash in the black sky. The last of the tourists had left the beach before sunrise. The pink Ferris wheel was still. The carousel horses were frozen in midair. The only sound she heard was the flap of the tarps over the empty vendor stands.
Alone on the boardwalk, Matelda leaned against the railing, where she observed curls of smoke from the abandoned firepits onthe beach drifting up to the heavens like offerings. The overcast sky blurred into the horizon, where it became one with the silver sea. She heard the blare of a foghorn as a sleek ocean liner appeared in the distance, rippling the surf in streaks of foam. The graceful ship glided past, pulling the banner of daybreak over the water. All her life, Matelda waited for the great ships and considered spotting one good luck. She couldn’t remember where she learned it; it was something she always knew.
Come back, Matelda thought as the white ship with a maroon hull and midnight blue trim sailed south. Too late. The ship was on its way to somewhere warm. Matelda was done with winter. It would not be long until the turquoise waves returned under a cloudless sky in springtime. How she looked forward to walks on the beach when the weather was warm.
Matelda typically took a short stroll after church in the morning to shop for the day’s meals, and a long walk in the afternoon to think. These rituals had shaped her days in the last chapter of her life, after she retired from her book keeping position at Cabrelli Jewelers. Matelda took the time to get her house in order. She didn’t want to leave her children with the stacks of paperwork and rooms of furniture her parents had left behind after they died. She wanted to prepare her children for the inevitable as best she could.
Perhaps Matelda felt blessed having dodged the virus that had hobbled Bergamo to the north—after all, a virus that targets the elderly certainly had her number. She was sanguine about the situation because she had no choice. Fate was a wrecking ball. She didn’t know when it would swing through to do its damage; she was only certain, from experience, that it would.
The habit of examining her conscience, instilled by the nuns when she was a child, hadn’t left her. Matelda reflected on past hurts done to her and took stock of those she had perpetrated on others. Toscans might live in the moment, but the past lived in them. Even if that weren’t true, there were reminders tucked in every corner of her hometown. She knew Viareggio and its people as well as she knew her own body; in a sense, they were one.
The mood turned grim in the village as the revelry of Carnevale ended and Lent began. The next forty days would be a somber time of reflection, fasting, and penance. Lent had felt like it lasted an eternity when she was a girl. Easter Sunday could not come soon enough. The day of relief. “You cannot have the joy of Easter Sunday without the agony of Good Friday,” her mother reminded them. “No cross, no crown,” she’d say in a dialect only her children understood.
The resurrection of the Lord redeemed the village and set the children free. Black sacks were pulled off the statues of the saints.The bare altar was decorated anew with myrtle and daisies. Plain broth for sustenance during the fast was replaced with sweet bread.The scents of butter, orange zest, and honey as Mama kneaded the dough for Easter bread during Holy Week lifted their spirits. The taste of the soft egg bread, braided into loaves served hot from the oven and drenched in honey, meant the sacrifice was over, at least until next year. Matelda recalled a particular Pranzo di Pasqua with every member from both sides of the family in attendance. Papa constructed one long dining table out of wooden doors so the entire family could sit together at the meal. Mama had covered the table in a yellow cloth and decorated it with baskets of her fresh bread.
“We are one,” her father said as he lifted his glass. Soon, the cousins, aunts, uncles, and siblings raised their glasses with him.There had been many happy moments in Matelda’s life, but that particular Easter Sunday after the war was significant. If her memory ever failed her completely, Matelda was certain she would still remember her family in the garden under a glittering sun as they broke the fast together. When Matelda was young, she chased time to get what she wanted. Now she chased time to hold on to it.
The wooden slats of the boardwalk creaked beneath her feet asshe walked down the promenade. She turned when she reached the midpoint of the pier and looked back at the wide gray runway. Why had it seemed endless when she was a girl?
Matelda recalled a summer evening on the boardwalk when she was a girl and walked beside her brother’s pram during La Passeggiata Mare. Nino was born in 1949. (She retained numbers—bookkeepers usually do.) The war was over. Her mother wore a dress of apricot organza, and her father wore a straw boater with a wide band of raspberry silk. Matelda placed her hand on her heart as the details came together in her mind’s eye. Soon the ghosts joined her on the walk, filling the drab boardwalk with color. She imagined men wearing taffy-colored suits and women preening in hats spiked with peacock plumes. Her mother slowly twirled a linen parasol bleached white by the sun. When Matelda stopped to rest on a bench, she closed her eyes and swore she could hear her mother’s voice. Domenica Cabrelli had taught her daughter to love the sea by her example. Matelda could feel the warmth of her mother’s presence whenever she walked along the water under the coral sun.
Matelda wondered why it was so easy to return to her childhood in particular detail, and yet she struggled to remember what she ate for dinner the night before. Maybe Ida’s probiotics would help! She’d have to ask her doctor. When her husband took her to her last appointment, the nurse conducted a memory test. There was not a single question about her past; instead, the doctor and nurse were obsessed with the here and now. Who is the president of Italy? What day of the week is it? How old are you? Matelda longed to respond “Who cares?” But she knew better than to get on the wrong side of her doctor. The doctor assured her that her visions and dreams of the past were normal but completely irrelevant when it came to the current assessment of the health of her brain. “The past and the present aren’t connected in the human brain,” he had explained to her. Matelda wasn’t so sure.
She crossed the boulevard and approached the original storefront of her family business, now a dress shop. It gave her a senseof pride to see Cabrelli Jewelers still painted on the building, even though the letters were faded. It had been twenty years since her husband moved the shop to Lucca, a bustling small city just a few miles inland from Viareggio.
Matelda shaded her eyes and peered into the shop through the wide storefront window. She could see that the door to the back room was open. The workroom that housed the bruting wheel where her grandfather cut the gems was now filled with racks of clothing.
The shopkeepers on the boulevard were busy taking down the decorations for Carnevale. They lowered the garlands, loosened festoons, and took down strings of lights while another man balanced on a ladder and unhooked red, white, and green bunting along the route where the parade had passed. The grocer swept confetti into the gutter and nodded a silent greeting as she passed.
Matelda cupped her hands and sipped the icy water that flowed down the mountain to ancient cisterns. The spigots were attached to the hands of carved angels whose faces had been worn away by time. The water was loaded with precious minerals that shored up the people who drank it. Matelda thought of her mother as she dried her hands on the handkerchief she kept in her pocket. Not only had Domenica Cabrelli insisted her children drink the water for their health, she also taught Matelda how to count as they passed a series of angel fountains on her way to school. Viareggio had also been her first primer.
Matelda opened her purse to pay the fruit vendor as he selected six unbruised golden apples from his display and gently placed them in a paper sack.
“How’s business?” Matelda asked as she paid. “Buona festa?”
“Not like the old days,” he complained.
Matelda passed a team of six men on Via Firenze as they folded an enormous blue-striped tent corner to corner like a bedsheet. The Cabrelli cousins had occupied the brightly painted houses that lined the street, stacked one on top of the other, like books on a shelf. Matelda had learned the homes of her relatives by the color of their front doors: rosa for the Mamaci cousins, giallo for the Biagettis, and verde for the Gregorios. Color also signaled retreat. Matelda was not welcome at the house with the porta azzurra because of a long-standing feud between the Cabrelli and the Nichini families, calcified in history long before she was born. The standoff continued after the Nichinis moved to Livorno, leaving the house with the blue door behind. Matelda remembered the summers of her childhood when she stood at the bottom of the hill and whistled to gather her cousins to go to the beach. The front doors would snap open at once, creating a colorful enfilade as the children ran down the street to join her.
For fun, Matelda put two fingers in her mouth and blew. The loud trill got the attention of the tent folders on the street, but not a single door flew open. Sadly, her cousins had migrated to Lucca too. Matelda and Olimpio were now the old timers in the village. The last of the Cabrelli-Roffos of Viareggio.
Matelda’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She stopped to read thetext.
Happy Birthday Matelda! Thank you for the lovely visit.
She texted her sister‑in‑law, Thank you. It was fun. Not long enough!
Matelda genuinely liked her sister‑in‑law, Patrizia. She was a peacemaker and had encouraged Nino to get along with Matelda; after all, they only had each other. Matelda hadn’t had a single argument with her brother when he and his wife last visited.
Can you ask Nino if he remembers Nonno Cabrelli’s elephant story? Matelda texted.
Patrizia sent back an emoji of a winking face.
Matelda hated emojis. Soon enough, human beings would not need language to communicate, animated small heads with bug eyes would do the talking for them.
Matelda stopped at the gate of the communal garden planted a hundred years earlier by the Boncourso family. Decades later, the lot remained in their name even though the family had died out after the First World War. The fallow garden was carpeted in muck. A few perennial plants were hooded in burlap to protect them against the frost. The white pergola stood alone in the center of the garden like a bridal carriage marooned in mud.
Matelda remembered her first kiss under the pergola. It was summer; she had closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of the grapes that draped over the arch. Rocco Tiburzi took that as a sign and stole the moment to kiss her. Matelda was fourteen years old and thought that nothing more wonderful would ever happen to her again; she practically floated home. When Matelda arrived, her grandmother Netta reprimanded her because she’d forgotten the sack of chestnuts she had been sent to collect. Tenderness and shame would remain closely tied in Matelda’s heart until she learned the combination
PUBLISHER:
Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN-10:
0593183347
ISBN-13:
9780593183342
BINDING:
Paperback
BOOK DIMENSIONS:
Dimensions: 5.1900(W) x Dimensions: 7.9000(H) x Dimensions: 0.9300(D)