“ Amy was supposed to be named after her grandmother, but at the last minute mother decided that Amelia was not good enough, and named her America. Yes, America. Was it a way to influence her destiny? She didn't know. But she liked it. She really did. ”
Amy’s Story unfolds on the background of American history, from the late 60’s up until 2011, and takes us through the timeline of how Italian-native Amy, full name America, creates her success story.
Amy experiences love, friendship, obstacles, success, and more as she moves from Italy to New York City to live near her American father. Following in her father’s footsteps, Amy becomes a successful publisher. Her story is intertwined with Stella, her childhood friend, whose unfinished memoir she intends to publish. As Amy edits the manuscript, Stella’s life is revealed as she also leaves Italy with her American lover Jim, a heartthrob who conceals his sensitive nature under a bravado façade.
Stella faces career achievements, setbacks and heartbreaking love as her journey runs parallel to major historical events―the Vietnam War, student protests and the Kent State shooting, the birth of radicalism and feminism, presidential elections and assassinations, immigration, the Watergate scandal, up to the 9/11 attack and beyond―providing an interesting commentary on the highlights in history that influenced the development of American society over the past 40 years and brought about the current outcome.
Additional captivating characters complete the picture and sustain the action: Steve, Stella’s husband, conformist and uninspiring; Nik, a passionate and extravagant Russian intellectual; Rosa, once a maid at Amy’s grandmother’s country estate and now married to the owner of a New York pizzeria; and others.
Stella's memoir never gets published, because Amy transforms it into a successful novel. This twist has readers re-imagining the entire story, and seeing it from a new and thought-provoking perspective.
Praise for Amy’s Story
“Amy’s Story is simply spellbinding. This is a story at once about identity, love and social upheaval; a woman’s journey from old world to new; from Italy to America. Mysterious, brave and captivating.”
“From the collapsing towers of 9/11 to the lyrical groves of northern Italy, the author ingeniously morphs Amy’s Story into a journey across America and back and forth across time. Along the way we meet a cohort of colorful characters, witness several romances, and there are wars and politics, too—all woven into a mesmerizing narrative that unspools like a good film. Anna Lawton is not only a scholar of the first rank, but a deft and artful novelist with a flair for the unexpected in her work.”
“Lawton’s characters connect to words with dynamic interactions and intellectual alacrity. This author’s voice manages both the interior lives of her characters and the connective tissue of their worlds. Anna Lawton’s mastery of story orchestrates the best out of ‘situation and plot,’ with a full range of motion using the entire emotional alphabet.”