Brooding Italian Drago di Luca and reserved lawyer Alysa Dennis are brought together by a shocking, shared betrayal—their late partners had been having an affair! But against all the odds, they strike an unlikely friendship, and forbidden awareness simmers…. Alysa's calm facade hides a painful secret that haunts her every time she looks into the soulful eyes of Drago's motherless child. As the attraction builds between them, Christmas approaches with the promise of a new start. Can the healing miracle of love, and the joy of the season, make them a family?

The spiritual message contained in this book not only transcends organized religious groups, but is entirely blind to all national, political, racial, social, and economic boundaries.

“Zanily inventive . . . This deeply eccentric comedy belongs in the company of the best novels about wildly precocious kids” (The Seattle Times). Al Santamaria is a child prodigy, maybe a genius. It is not out of the realm of possibility that he, alone, will save the human race. But first, he has to solve a far more urgent problem: finding a home for his family. He exists, like many kids, in a realm located somewhere between reality and fantasy, enjoying time with imaginary friends and wielding his magical powers. He has a wonderful relationship with his father, Mario Elvis, and his mother, Agnese, and he’s convinced he has the best family in the world. But life isn’t all roses for the Santamaria family. They are typical of many Italian families today, whose existences seem suspended between conflicting impulses: on the one hand, delusions of grandeur and immoderate ambition, and on the other nostalgia for a past golden age and the secret wish that somebody, anybody, will come to their rescue. Big dreams, it appears, exist to be crushed. But Al is not about to give up. He lives in a marvelous world of his own. He has the energy, imagination, and unselfconscious talents of a child. And, although he doesn’t know it yet, he is going to remain a child his entire life. “An extended, guffaw-inducing, and sometimes tragic trip through Al’s young life. It reads like an Italian sitcom.” —Foreword Reviews “An amazing novel: it’ll move you and make you laugh.” —Elle “A plot shot through with the richness of Italian comedy and bright irony.” —La Repubblica

Nurse Amy Phillips has two things she has to do this Christmas—look after six children, and save their house from being bulldozed by the ruthless new owner! Billionaire surgeon Luke Harrington usually keeps his emotions so close to his chest that some people think he doesn’t have any. But, faced with evicting this vibrant brood from the house he’s reluctantly inherited, he can’t bring himself to be the bad guy... He’s touched by the warmth and love he sees in Amy and her family. They have none of his wealth, yet their Christmas will be richer than any he’s known. So when Amy welcomes him into her life it feels as if he’s experienced a Christmas miracle of his own...

DIVA sophisticated theoretical treatment of post-war Italian Cinema./div

This book presents the story of Saint Rita of Cascia, an Augustinian nun. She is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Rita was beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1626 and canonized by Pope Leo XIII on May 24, 1900. At her canonization ceremony, she received the title of Patroness of Impossible Causes. This book is a story of her life and miracles.

Providing a comprehensive history of Italy from around 1800 to the present, Italy in the Modern World traces the social and cultural transformations that defined the lives of Italians during the 19th and 20th century. The book focuses on how social relations (class, gender and race), science and the arts shaped the political processes of unification, state building, fascism and the postwar world. Split up into four parts covering the making of Italy, the liberal state, war and fascism, and the republic, the text draws on secondary literature and primary sources in order to synthesize current historiographical debates and provide primary documents for classroom use. There are individual chapters on key topics, such as unification, Italians in the world, Italy in the world, science and the arts, fascism, the World Wars, the Cold War, and Italy in the 21st century, as well as a wealth of useful features for students, including: * Comprehensive bibliographic essays covering each of the four parts * 23 images and 12 maps Italy in the Modern World also firmly places both the nation and its people in a wider global context through a distinctly transnational approach. It is essential reading for all students of modern Italian history.

Until the beginning of the 18th century, to be 'Italian' meant to identify with a number of collective memories, rather than a national memory. Yet there are elements of continuity that have shaped Italian identity over the past 1,500 years. Religion, food, art and architecture, a literary language, as well as a particular relationship between cities and countryside, between family and civil society have all contributed to present day Italian culture and politics. Baldoli explores the history of Italy as a country, rather than as a nation, in order to trace its fascinating cultural and political development. Offering a way into each period of Italian history, the book brings Italy's past to life with extracts from poetry, novels and music. Drawing on the latest research published in English and Italian, this is the ideal introduction for all those interested in Italy's cultural and social past and its significance for the country's present.