Francesca's Kitchen

No one writes about Italian-American families with the humor, warmth, and heart of Peter Pezzelli. Now, with Francesca's Kitchen, he delivers another winning novel about how much we need the closeness of family—even if we don't know it. Where There's Food, There's FamilyFor years, Francesca Campanile was the queen of her home. Standing in her Rhode Island kitchen, making sauce from sun-ripened tomatoes, dropping in basil from her garden, and adding fresh onion, Francesca dispensed advice as liberally as she did the garlic, arguing nonstop with her son and two daughters.It was wonderful.But now, her children and their children have moved away. And for the widowed Francesca, no longer having a family around to pester, annoy, guide, love, harangue and, of course, cook for, makes her feel useless. Who is she without them? What she needs is another family that needs her, and when she sees Loretta Simmons's ad in the Providence paper for a part-time...