Jamilkowski’s debut, an act of love and history, blends fact and fiction to tell the story of a complex and troubled Italian mother-daughter relationship amid the worldwide upheavals of the early and mid-twentieth century. Born to Italian parents, Maria-Luisa Moresco is temperamental and talented. Anticipating an independent life centered around a career in music, young piano virtuoso Maria-Luisa is frustrated by adult responsibility, including a surprise pregnancy and the subsequent birth of her child, Chiara, in 1937. Chiara grows into feisty independence herself, becoming headstrong and impulsive, leading to conflict with a mother who had “resolved to focus on musical perfection to an exclusive degree." Maria-Luisa's career found her collaborating with and inspiring Maria Callas, her dear friend.

This surprising story, drawn from Jamilkowski’s research into family history, both jolts and rouses as it sweeps across decades, heartaches, and moments of powerful self-invention. Chiara eventually is twice forced to part with her own children. Upon immigrating to America, life proves challenging as Chiara (now Clara) leaves a tempestuous marriage, fights illness, and finds an anchor in a new relationship. Jamilkowski underscores throughout the strength and resilience of both mother and daughter, dramatizing scenes of hardship and hard choices but also touching intimacy, with psychological insight. Maria-Luisa is subjected to rape by Russian soldiers at the end of World War II, while Chiara endures rape in her own home, in the presence of her husband, whom she subsequently leaves. Later, she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is forced to give up her child for adoption.

Both of these courageous women refuse to be defined or defeated by their experiences. Jamilkowski’s storytelling edges toward the informative and biographical rather than the page-turning, with ample historical context and a feeling of narrative reportage explaining their thoughts and emotions. But towards the end, the narrative achieves rich in-the-moment intimacy.

Takeaway: Historical study of a fraught, fascinating mother-daughter bond, over decades.

Comparable Titles: Kristin Harmel’s The Paris Daughter, Devorah Shafrir Keret’s My Grandmother’s Shadow.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A