Ann Hood

An Italian immigrant watches her six children grow up while she searches for her seventh, the product of a love affair who was given up for adoption. In turn-of-the-century Italy, fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived...

"An intelligent, moving read" (Pages) and "a testament to women's friendship and to Ann Hood's talent" (Hilma Wolitzer).After the sudden loss of her only child, Mary Baxter joins a knitting circle in Providence, Rhode Island, as a way to fill the empty hours and lonely days. The women welcome her, each teaching Mary a new knitting technique and, as they do, revealing their own personal stories of loss, love, and hope. Eventually Mary is

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"Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn't foster a love of literature, Ann Hood discovered nonetheless the companionship of books. She learned to channel her imagination, ambitions, and curiosity by devouring ever-growing stacks. In Morningstar, Hood recollects how The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment, and The Outsiders influenced her teen psyche and introduced her to topics that could not be discussed...

A grieving young widow and a pregnant teenager find an uncommon friendship in a luminous, deeply moving novel  
After a college student speeding in a blue Honda Civic kills her husband of less than a year, Olivia is completely lost. One hot summer day, she walks into the beachfront Rhode Island cottage she and David bought the previous August—the place where they had planned to someday start a family—and finds a stranger...

College friends Lucy and Katherine reunite as adults—and build a new friendship as changed women
Katherine shows up at Lucy’s Manhattan doorstep having run away from the marriage altar. Lucy isn’t thrilled to see her former sorority sister—her own life as a children’s book illustrator is complicated enough, especially as she may be falling out of love with her boyfriend. Along with Lucy’s oddball best...

The death of Alexander Porter has a traumatic effect on the members of his family, who are unable to pursue their lives again. Each one; mother, wife, son and sister, react differently to the tragedy. The family breaks apart until reconciliation and acceptance of their grief finally comes.

"Time travelers Maisie and Felix meet a young Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor of the telephone). When the twins get separated from Alexander, they join the thousands of orphans in the streets of Victorian London"--

Great-Uncle Thorne sends Maisie, Felix, and the Ziff twins on a dangerous trip back in time through The Treasure Chest and into the Congo to find Amy Pickworth, Thornes missing aunt. When Maisie and Felix get separated from the twins, they use the magic of The Treasure Chest and find themselves in early twentieth-century Kansas with a young girl named Amelia Earhart.

After her father leaves and marries the glamorous Ava Pomme, Madeline blames her mother for their difficult new life, but in spite of the twelve-year-old's efforts to achieve sainthood, it takes a summer trip to Italy to put her family into perspective.

Peter Farrelly's story "The Saturday Night Before Easter Sunday" has been nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Short Story!
Named a Favorite Book of 2015 by Scott MacKay at Rhode Island Public Radio
"Even Providence's signature public art has a dark side in Providence Noir (Akashic), which includes a story called 'WaterFire's Smell Tonight' by Pablo Rodriguez. Each tale in this anthology edited by Ann Hood is set in

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