Name: When We Were Strangers
ISBN: 9780062003997

Pamela Schoenewaldt

Irma Vitale, a painfully honest young seamstress, strikes out from her isolated mountain village for 1880s America. A first novel. Original. 25,000 first printing.

A Novel

When We Were Strangers

“The people as real as your own family, and the tale realistic enough to be any American’s.” —Nancy E. Turner, author of These is My Words A moving, powerful, and evocative debut novel, When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt heralds the arrival of superb new voice in American fiction. A tale rich in color, character, and vivid historical detail, it chronicles the tumultuous life journey of a young immigrant seamstress, as she travels from her isolated Italian mountain village through the dark corners of late nineteenth century America. A historical novel that readers of Geraldine Brooks, Nancy Turner, Frances de Pontes Peebles, and Debra Dean will most certainly cherish, When We Were Strangers will live in the mind and the heart long after its last page is turned.

Janet Doré

** spoiler alert **
           While this book was well written, it didn’t bring anything new to the immigrant story. I’ve read several books in this genre, so I found myself feeling a little irritated that it was so formulaic. 

Girl leaves her native country alone because of hardship, has rough journey to America and various challenges in the first couple years, then finally makes it. Fortunately, I connected enough with the main character to stick with it to the happy ending.

When We Were Strangers A Novel

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