{"product_id":"becoming-mariella-9781647427689","title":"Becoming Mariella","description":"\u003cb\u003eFor fans of Elena Ferrante's \u003ci\u003eThe Lying Life of Adults\u003c\/i\u003e and Jean Kwok's \u003ci\u003eGirl in Translation \u003c\/i\u003ecomes a contemporary coming-of-age tale about a young Italian immigrant's desperate journey to find her personal freedom.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's unprecedented, even in the twenty-first century, for a young Sicilian woman to defy the centuries-old mandate, \"Family is everything!\"--but twenty-two-year-old Mariella Russo is desperate to escape Sicily. She's being relentlessly coerced into an engagement with her wealthy college sweetheart--a young man from a prominent, powerful family--by her envious and erratic mother, who hopes the match will increase her own ignominious social status. Suddenly, Mariella's lifelong home has become a claustrophobic island. In a bid for independence and an attempt to escape entrapment, she flees to San Francisco. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Mariella's b?te noire--entrapment--follows her to San Francisco, where everyone wants more from her than she wants to give. Her American roommate, Leslie, turns out to be a gay man rather than the woman she imagined; her employer\/lover is pressuring her to live with him; and her neurotic mother is haunting her, wreaking havoc and embarrassment. An urgent return trip to Sicily puts Mariella to the ultimate challenge: will she submit to tradition, or choose a life she wants for herself?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e She Writes Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/04\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781647427689\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 376\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/0001\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Janet Constantino","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44902116098229,"sku":"9781647427689","price":16.14,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_4edb4db1-14de-46f9-94a2-41673659b45c.jpg?v=1733813257","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/becoming-mariella-9781647427689","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}