It's Naples, Italy, 1905. Young Leonardo Robustelli can't find work. He's been advanced a steamship ticket to New York.
Carlo Mazzi committed murder and escaped. Azzura Medina is an American of Italian parents. She’s ambitious but strictly controlled by her mother. Leonardo and Carlo vie for her affection.
Azzura, Leonardo, and Carlo confront con men, Tammany Hall politicians, the longshoreman’s union, Camorra clans, Black Hand extortion, and the Tombs prison.
What turns the gentle mean and the mean brutal? The thirst for wealth? The demand for respect? Vying for a woman? Birds of Passage recalls the Italian immigration experience at the turn of the twentieth-century when New York’s streets were paved with violence and disappointment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgIj6n4j4Y4&t=14s
Excerpt
Leonardo’s father, Nunzio Robustelli, dropped his mud-crusted shoes at the door and trudged into the kitchen. His three-day grisly beard was as coarse as a Rhino’s skin. He was a short, wiry man with a full head of black swept-back hair. The shape of his eyes had earned him the nickname Chinaman from his fellow tenant farmers. He reeked of dirt and sweat. He headed straight for the jug of homemade red wine, grabbed a chunk of goat cheese, some bread, and plopped down at a wooden table next to Leonardo without a word. He carved off a slice of cheese and poured himself a tumbler of wine.
Leonardo’s mother, Anna, didn’t look up when his father entered. Her black hair was streaked with gray; her eyes were as blue as the Mediterranean. She stirred a black kettle of simmering tomato sauce on a wood-burning stove. The smell of garlic filled the house. A gray-stone fireplace was opposite the table, and a beat-up pot filled with warmed water for washing hung from an embedded cleat. Atop the crude-beam mantle was a tiny oval tintype picture of Nunzio in a military uniform. There were steps that led to a loft, Leonardo’s parents’ bedroom, with some simple wood furniture and a straw mattress. Leonardo slept on a narrow bed in the corner next to the fireplace.
Leonardo never heard his father laugh. No matter how hard Leonardo tried, his father was never pleased. Every day Nunzio was off at dawn and home at dusk. In the evening when Nunzio wanted sex with Anna, he’d order Leonardo to bed. Although Leonardo pressed his hands to his ears like a vice, his father’s muffled grunts would drive him into a fetal position. More recently, when Leonardo heard his parents make love, he’d leave the house and sleep outside.
Leonardo fidgeted in his chair. His eyes shifted between his parents. He took a deep breath and stood. “I’m going to America.”
His mother put down her ladle and turned. His father’s face chewed itself into a smirk, but his gaze didn’t rise.
Anna’s blue eyes crinkled into a frown. The creases in her face deepened. She wiped her hands on the linen apron over her ankle-length blue skirt. “I don’t understand.”
“There’s no work in Naples. There are so many competing tenant farmers that you slave all day and can’t afford bread. There’s no future for me here.”
Leonardo’s mother was rigid. His father sliced off another piece of cheese.
“There are jobs in New York. I’ll make good money.”
Anna took a step toward her son. “But Signor Felicio wants you as his apprentice. Shoemaking is a good trade. Everyone wears shoes.”
Leonardo’s eyes rolled. “Mama, I don’t want to be a shoemaker.”
Anna moved closer to her son. “What about Rozalia Valentini? She likes you. I can see it in her eyes. Her parents have promised her a house and some farmland for a dowry.”
“I don’t love Rozalia.”
Nunzio drained his glass. He glanced at his wife. “There are worse reasons to marry than for money.”
Anna’s mouth pursed. She looked at her son. “New York is so far. You’ve never been away from me.”
“Mama, you taught me that the bird leaves the nest. It’s time.”
“Is New York safe?”
Leonardo put his arm around his mother. “I’m old enough to take care of myself.” He squeezed her shoulders. She turned away. “Mama, come on. I talked to Signor Moretti in Naples. He’s an agent for the steamship line. He gets jobs for Italians in New York. He’s advanced me a steamship ticket. Look.” Leonardo took the paper out of his pocket and read the stamped message aloud.
Anna glanced at the paper in her son’s hand. “Moretti was a barker in Chiarini’s Italian circus. Now he recruits unemployed Italians to leave their homes. He’s a moneylender and a girovaghi.
He’s traveled and trades in his experience like it was jewels. Why do you trust him?”
“I don’t, but a man needs to make his own way.”
Nunzio leaned back. His chair creaked. He spoke slowly as if to an idiot. “Moretti would steal breast milk from a baby. He’ll profit from you, not the other way around.” He poured himself another glass of wine.
Leonardo said, “You don’t want me to have my own money. You want me to remain under your control.”
Nunzio’s face reddened. “A few lire in your pocket won’t make you a man. When will you complete your military service? The government won’t forget you.”
“When I come home.”
Nunzio faced Anna. “I told you no good would come from his studying English.” He waved at Leonardo. “I’ve warned you. Do what you want.”
Leonardo turned to his mother. “Mama, it’s 1905. Lots of Italians are emigrating to America. I’ll make some money in New York. With steamships I can be home in ten days.” He kissed her cheek. “You won’t even know I’m gone.”
Anna’s eyes glistened. She nodded to him, but sobbed in the night. She awoke to each sunrise with dread. Every new light was one day closer to when Leonardo would leave.
Professional Reviews
Kirkus Review
KIRKUS REVIEW
This riveting debut novel by Giordano charts the passage of two young Italian men to early twentieth century New York, as they strive to make their mark in the New World.
Leonardo has a strong sense of rectitude, and respect for his family, yet a life in Naples, for him, signals a life wasted. Hugging farewell to his tearful mother, he boards the steamship Prinzessin Irene, bound for Ellis Island, New York. Carlo, meanwhile is the son of the powerful Don Salvatore Mazzi, who flees to America to avoid being arrested for murder. Arriving in the great metropolis, they soon become all too aware how Italians are the target of brutal discrimination. One passerby remarks: “Did you get a whiff of that? Italians from down in the boot reek of garlic and body odor.” [103] In a city that appears to have pitted itself against them, the men must fight for recognition. Leonardo seeks an honest path, vying for work in the dockyards among the Irish, who despite being marginalized themselves, reject Italians as subhuman. Carlo meanwhile becomes involved in a counterfeiting scam which goes horribly wrong. The two men’s paths finally cross when they share lodgings and fall in love with the same woman, the beautiful and enigmatic Azzura Medina. The novel demonstrates how the rapacious nature of big city life, and machinations of the criminal underworld rapidly shapes and distorts the new arrivals’ characters. A sense desperation and viciousness is palpable: “Carlo withdrew the knife and dug it into Shippen’s chest. Shippen’s eyes bulged. He squirmed. Carlo withdrew the knife and raised it to stab again. Shippen made a choking sound. His eyes dulled, and he stopped struggling”. [112] Yet, the novel is held together by a carefully structured plot that does not rely merely on gratuitous violence. The psychological development of Leonardo and Carlo is fascinating, although the author may slightly neglect describing the outer appearance of his characters in detail. Part thriller, part love story, part coming-of-age narrative, this book’s appeal reaches successfully beyond the often restrictive confines of its genre.
A refreshing rethink of the archetypal mafia novel.
The Summerset Review
If you had the means to change your destiny, would you do it? Especially if it meant committing acts that are, let's just say, not so legal? Destiny, fortune, and doing the "right thing" are key themes in Joe Giordano's novel, Birds of Passage. The book tells the interwoven stories of characters like Azzura Medina, Leonardo Robustelli, and Carlo Mazzi—Italians trying to make their lives the best they can be in an America that is not quite sure how to deal with its immigration influx.
Leonardo is a young native of Naples who can't get a job. No one in his village is hiring, and he has greater aspirations than the shoemaking trade his mother begs him to enter. Seeking his fortune, he heads to America, land of opportunity. Azzura, born in New York City, is a first-generation American with Italian parents who obey the traditions of their old home in Italy. Carlo is the son of a rich Italian landowner who finds himself in serious trouble when he can't contain his temper. He is rich, handsome, and brutally cold.
Through these characters and a host of their family, friends, and acquaintances on either side of the Atlantic, Giordano beautifully captures the delicate dance between tradition and the future. Many of them are stuck between the Old World and the New World and between the wishes, desires, and grudges of their parents and their own optimism for the future.
Decision after decision is made, for better or for worse, and as the consequences stack up, all of the main players recalibrate their expectations for life, love, family, and the future. As Giordano intertwines each character's respective tale, the tension mounts, with the reader eagerly awaiting the resolution of each chapter.
What begins as a simple tale of immigrant hopes and dreams quickly evolves into a story of destiny: how we change it, how we defy it, and how we accept it.
Ben Fountain
"With Birds of Passage, Joe Giordano delivers a rollicking, wholly entertaining take on the Italian immigrant story. His rich cast of characters arrives seeking the usual: Money, honor, love, respect, a decent shot at the pursuit of happiness. But things get complicated fast as they plunge into the rough-and-tumble world of rackets, scams, and politics of early 20th-century New York City. Giordano serves up a thick, satisfying slice of the entire era in all its raw and brutal glory."
Ben Fountain, author of "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," a major motion picture directed by Ang Lee.
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