Join us online on Zoom for our October discussion! Our title is The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames.

Stubborn Beauty Brewing at 180 Johnson St, Middletown, CT currently has online ordering and curbside pick-up. Order to go and enjoy at home during the discussion! 

Zoom link sent out 1 hour ahead of time. Please register to receive the link!

The October title is The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames. Copies available for curbside pick-up or E-copies are available at www.russelllibrary.org.

Set in the past in Italy and present day Connecticut.
For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents—moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted.
In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity—beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence.
When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.
In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina. A richly told debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is a tale of family transgressions as ancient and twisted as the olive branch that could heal them. 

Questions? E-mail Christy Billings at cbillings@russelllibrary.org

Sponsored by the Friends of Russell Library.