Between The Sauce Stars and Heaven

<p><strong>Between the Sauce Stars and Heaven</strong> is a lushly told memoir of one family's century-long climb from a sun-baked village in southern Italy to the Sunday-scented kitchens of New Jersey-and the sky-wide promise of America.</p><p></p><p>From twelve dollars sewn into a steerage coat to a panoramic front porch that became the Basenese command center Lou Basenese Jr. traces four generations of grit garlic and grace. He introduces readers to:</p><ul><li>Gabriel & Donata-the Ellis-Island newlyweds who traded olives and poverty for factory whistles and freedom.</li><li>Uncle Angelo-roguish charmer porch pick-pocket legend gone too soon.</li><li>Louie & Eva-parents who stitched faith into every meal and discipline into every heartbeat.</li><li>Christopher-a son lost to fentanyl poisoning whose final letter still rewrites the author's soul.</li></ul><p></p><p>Along the way Lou survives Wall-Street boardrooms a shattering business collapse and a twelve-minute death on a California sidewalk-revived only by the relentless CPR of his wife Laura.</p><p></p><p>Threaded through with handwritten recipes small-town football nights and a near-audible chorus of Italian-American aunts <strong>Between the Sauce Stars and Heaven</strong> is a testament to second chances table-wide forgiveness and the stubborn belief that even the heaviest stories can rise-like a ladle of Sunday sauce-toward heaven.</p>