Akron Public Library

"Adua, an immigrant from Somalia to Italy, has lived in Rome for nearly forty years. She came seeking freedom from a strict father and an oppressive regime, but her dreams of becoming a film star ended in shame. Now that the civil war in Somalia is over, her homeland beckons. Yet Adua has a husband who needs her, a young man, also an immigrant, who braved a dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. When her father, who worked as an interpreter...

In The Aeneid, Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word in the poem. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes the reader to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.--From amazon.com.

It's been four years since Lydia Harris last spoke to her elder sister, Adele. When Adele telephones from Rome and interrupts Lydia's work as a nurse at the Santa Monica Emergency Hospital, she's more than a little surprised—and curious. Adele explains that she sent a parcel to Lydia, and after Lydia receives it, she must come to Rome at once. Disturbed by her sister's cryptic message, Lydia is further puzzled when the parcel arrives containing...

"Like Fellini's classic film 8 1/2 and mixed with Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty, a gorgeously wrought novel that explores the complicated life of a controversial Italian film producer who vanishes after a fire destroys his home. Rome, present day: an extravagant, opulent world of fashionable parties, fancy cars, and powerful men and women in a constant dance of excess and intrigue. Oscar Martello, president of a film production company, is a self-made...

"Inspired by a real-life female spy, a WWII-set novel about a woman challenging convention and boundaries to help win a war, no matter the cost. "A gripping, fascinating read." --Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan 1944, Rome. Newlywed Niki Novotná is recruited by a new American spy agency to establish a secret branch in Italy's capital. One of the OSS's few female operatives abroad and multilingual, she's tasked...

"In the first century A.D., during Domitian's reign, Flavia Albia is ready for a short break from her family. So, in July, she returns to Rome, leaving them at their place on the coast. Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, now retired as private informer, has taken up her father's former profession and it's time to get back to work. The first order business, however, is the corpse found in a chest sent as part of a large lot to be sold by the...

The purchase of a slave for their teacher leads a group of schoolboys in ancient Rome into a dangerous intrigue.