American History

The families of Salvatore Leone and Luigi Agnello had already been long-time bitter enemies in Sicily by the turn of the twentieth century. In 1914 Vincenzo Leone Salvatores oldest son emigrates to Philadelphia to start a new life for himself and his family in the promised land. Several years later Giuseppe Agnello Luigis eldest secretly marries Francesca Leone Vincenzos sister and the couple escape to New York City. Giuseppe leaves to serve his new country during the First World War. Francesca alone and in need of support for herself and their infant son Louis travels to Philadelphia to live with her brother his wife and his two daughters. The Spanish Flu takes the lives of Vincenzos wife and sister in 1917 and Leone moves with his daughters and Francescas son to San Francisco. Vincenzo Leone decides to raise Louis Agnello as his own child. When Giuseppe returns from the war he finds his wife and son gone. It takes more than five years for Agnello to learn the whereabouts of his family. Giuseppe travels to San Francisco with hopes of a reunion with Francesca and Louis and becomes a victim of the hatred between the two families that has been recently transplanted in America by Vincenzos younger brother Roberto. Vincenzo learns that Giuseppe had traveled to San Francisco to locate his wife and son but Agnello had never reached Vincenzos door. Vincenzo begins to worry about the safety of sisters son and decides Louis will accompany him to New York City and to Sicily. A failed attempt on the boys life results in Vincenzos death and instigates a fresh and fierce hostility between the Agnello and Leone families that rivals the hatred and vindictiveness experienced in the old country. American History is the epic generational saga of the Agnellos and the Leones (in the Italian language the lambs and the lions)--a one-hundred-year conflict between Giuseppes descendants in New York City law enforcers and Vincenzos descendants in San Francisco lawbreakers. Praise for AMERICAN HISTORY: J.L. Abramos novel American History is a thrilling epic tale of two families crossing an ocean and a continent and spanning a century. An ambitious undertaking skillfully executed by a writer deserving wide recognition. --Steve Hamilton Edgar Award-winning author of Dead Man Running American History is a beautifully written ambitious crime epic. J.L. Abramo delivers an immersive emotional and suspenseful gem that spans eras and nations and reminds us of who we are. A page-turning pleasure. --Michael Koryta New York Times bestselling author of How It Happened