Italian American Museum

LXCL:Includes admission to the Museum's current exhibits.

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Book presentation and talk by novelist Ryan Byrnes, winner of the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award. About the book: A Love Story of Italian Immigrants, reaching from Brooklyn to Sicily to Tunisia, from the Great War to the Great Depression.In 1912, after barely medicating herself against a near-fatal asthma attack, Sicilian emigrant Anna Di Nicola reluctantly leaves her family&rsquo;s Brooklyn tenement to seek a cure in the balmy climate of Tunisia. She is one of the few American immigrants to return to the Old World. In Tunisia, she detests how her asthma renders her dependent on her aunt, so she works for independence by learning to weave traditional wedding shawls for the Sephardic Jewish community. However, her apprenticeship comes with an expectation that she will marry her mentor&rsquo;s son while her heart lies with someone else. Antonio Orlando, a Sicilian native, dreams of working in his father&rsquo;s barber shop. However, mafia shootings force his father to close the shop and emigrate to America, abandoning Antonio in the Old World. To avoid slavery under the mafia, Antonio moves in with his uncle, a barber in Tunisia. Antonio swears he will one day return to Sicily and rebuild his family&rsquo;s barber shop, hoping it will inspire his father to return. He befriends Anna during her regular haircuts and begins to wonder if home is not a place but rather a person. When he accepts a betrothal to his cousin that would enable him to return to Sicily, Antonio must choose between his duty to family and his heart. About the author: Ryan Byrnes is the great grandson of Italian immigrants Anna Di Nicola and Antonio Orlando. His previous novel Royal Beauty Bright won a gold medal in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and his fiction has been published in Italian America, December, Pembroke, Sixfold, and more. He is a book editor at Springer Nature in New York City.

Hi <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; color: rgb(42, 42, 196); padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you for registering for our event and supporting our cause. Your registration greatly helps our mission. 🚀 Sincerely, James Santagadajsantagada.iam@gmail.com

Book presentation and talk by novelist Ryan Byrnes, winner of the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award. About the book: A Love Story of Italian Immigrants, reaching from Brooklyn to Sicily to Tunisia, from the Great War to the Great Depression.In 1912, after barely medicating herself against a near-fatal asthma attack, Sicilian emigrant Anna Di Nicola reluctantly leaves her family’s Brooklyn tenement to seek a cure in the balmy climate of Tunisia. She is one of the few American immigrants to return to the Old World. In Tunisia, she detests how her asthma renders her dependent on her aunt, so she works for independence by learning to weave traditional wedding shawls for the Sephardic Jewish community. However, her apprenticeship comes with an expectation that she will marry her mentor’s son while her heart lies with someone else. Antonio Orlando, a Sicilian native, dreams of working in his father’s barber shop. However, mafia shootings force his father to close the shop and emigrate to America, abandoning Antonio in the Old World. To avoid slavery under the mafia, Antonio moves in with his uncle, a barber in Tunisia. Antonio swears he will one day return to Sicily and rebuild his family’s barber shop, hoping it will inspire his father to return. He befriends Anna during her regular haircuts and begins to wonder if home is not a place but rather a person. When he accepts a betrothal to his cousin that would enable him to return to Sicily, Antonio must choose between his duty to family and his heart. About the author: Ryan Byrnes is the great grandson of Italian immigrants Anna Di Nicola and Antonio Orlando. His previous novel Royal Beauty Bright won a gold medal in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and his fiction has been published in Italian America, December, Pembroke, Sixfold, and more. He is a book editor at Springer Nature in New York City.

Italian American Museum

My Dear Antonio: A Love Story

151 Mulberry St

Tickets

$15

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