Bread, Wine & Angels

Bread, Wine and Angels is the story of a child -- a girl child -- in a remote village of southern Italy living in an environment where girls are "barrels of wine" to be sold off quickly lest they turn to vinegar. Here, in this impregnable cradle of society, she waits for the fulfillment of her father's promise -- that he and her mother, who emigrated to poor America (Canada), will return and bring America back with them.

She is raised by her aunt and grandmother, who urge her not only to study, but to listen and observe, because a school degree without experience is better hung next to the toilet (if you have one). She listens and observes at the feet of the women who sit at the edge of the street to knit and embroider. They are qualified to tell of life, of bread and wine.

This is the story of an outrageous child who, through innocent eyes, redefines the recipes of bread, wine and life as she waits for the angels to speak her. It is the story of her challenge of every institution, of her struggle to remain who she is lest she bend too far and snap and break and die. It is the story of her visions, her dreams of America -- the home of the brave and the land of the free. And ultimately it is the story of the struggle of every living thing -- a tree or a little girl -- against the merciless winds of fate that pull and rip and transplant to heaven, hell or America.