Given Away by Marianna Biazzo Randazzo

Given Away by Marianna Biazzo Randazzo

Two books in one

In this complete, expanded and illustrated edition of Given Away: A Sicilian Upbringing, Marianna Randazzo reintroduces readers to Tina, a four-year-old child in Sicily, 1935 and her sister Lena. Tina reluctantly walks away from her loving family, with a great-aunt for a vacation and spends the next eight years of her life absent from their lives. It was neither abduction nor an adoption. Tina lives in a one-room house in one of the poorest regions of Sicily. She sleeps between a loving aunt and a deranged uncle. She shares her breakfast with goats and chickens while living in the shadows of cruelty. Both sisters quickly learn that in wartime Europe, childhood does not exist.

Given Away, the Rest of the Story follows Tina and Lena from a scarred youth into their mature lives. Their relationship evolves through powerful decisions made about love, their professional successes and failures and the different circumstances of their lives.

Being raised in war-torn Sicily, in the shadow of fascism, each sister must accept the decisions made by their family despite circumstances that could be categorized as abusive and undeniably negligent. Each respects her parent's choices and undertakes tremendous sacrifices for the greater good -- even when it is not apparent to them.

Tina is a survivor despite growing up in battle-scarred, insolvent region of Sicily and fleeing one fierce conflict after another. Traveling across the turbulent waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of New York City, she is able to forgive those who took so much away from her. Her spirit trumps over adversity during the combat times within and around her. As she grows older, she struggles to keep the harsh realities of World War I and abandonment at a distance through her sense of humor, imagination, and determination.

Given Away, The Rest of the Story is the sort of prequel/sequel that takes the reader back to the unforgettable landscape of Sicily and explores the amazing, complicated lives of the characters that surround the two sisters.