A Mandolin of Gold - A Novel by Michael F. Tedesco

Announcements
A Mandolin of Gold - A Novel by Michael F. Tedesco
By Mandolin Cafe
November 25, 2009 - 10:45 pm

Brooklyn, N.Y. — A Mandolin of Gold is a new novel by Michael Frank Tedesco, a fourth generation resident of Brooklyn from an Italian/Sicilian family.

In the novel, Tedesco combined considerable research on stringed instrument virtuosity, the nearly forgotten pre rock-and-roll era of mandolinists and their orchestras, and the often difficult, early twentieth-century history of Italians in America.

About the book, from the author:

Nineteen-ninety, Brooklyn, New York. Ninety-five year old Ernesto DiLentini, forgotten virtuoso from the era when mandolin reigned as the most rebellious instrument of the day, remembers everything... running away at 17 to join a 34-member Neapolitan plectrum orchestra, falling in love with a girl destined for the convent, socializing with rowdy Futurists, and making records for the Victrola in 1913. Perhaps a rock star before Rock, Ernesto recklessly achieves success beyond his wildest dreams... until the discovery of his affair with a married woman and the urgent need to escape her revolver-carrying husband put him on a merchant steamer sailing for La'Merica.

Ernesto arrives in New York disguised in women's clothes, without baggage or passport, yet still in possession of his beloved mandolin. What should be a long prosperous career reaching far beyond the heyday of Coney Island, World War One, Prohibition, and Vaudeville, becomes the turbulent and bittersweet portrait of a brilliant career cut short, an enduring love for three heartbreaking sisters, and a dangerous association with an ominous man known only as il Lupo.

Additional information:

November 30, 2009, there will be a reading from the book at Bar Great Harry, 280 Smith Street in Brooklyn (Take the F to Bergen Street and walk just a few blocks).

Book web site
Purchase book: From author
Purchase book: From amazon.com