Praise for THREE DREAMERS by Lorenzo Carcaterra!

"Carcaterra (Sleepers) pays a moving tribute to his grandmother, mother, and wife in this heartfelt account of how they shaped him. A fearless advocate for her family during the Nazi occupation of Naples in WWII, Carcaterra’s “Nonna” Maria lost a son during the invasion and, through her resilience, taught him about courage, forgiveness, and generosity. His mother, Raffaela, however, “presented me with a different picture,” Carcaterra notes. She stayed married to an abusive husband who’d murdered his first wife and cheated countless people, and her “words to me, sometimes kind, often bitter, gave fuel to my desire to live as far from such misery as possible,” Carcaterra writes. In 1976, while working at the New York Daily News, Carcaterra met the third woman who would profoundly impact his life: Susan Toepfer, a brilliant editor who became his wife of three decades and mother of his two children. In the book’s introduction, Carcaterra reveals that Susan died from the same cancer that took his mother’s life. With spare yet resounding prose, Carcaterra follows these women from his childhood home in Hell’s Kitchen to the Italian island of Ischia, to the battles each of them fought at the end of their lives. This emotional narrative isn’t for the fainthearted, but its beauty is a thing to behold."
—Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

“Engaging…this reflective memoir gives nuance to the dark world [Carcaterra] portrays in his novels.”
—Library Journal

“Elegantly and sensitively written, a book that forges strong connections across four generations.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“With keen perception and even-keeled acceptance, Carcaterra shares the stories of his grandmother, mother, and wife as he traces how their relationships encouraged him to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.”
—Booklist

“I loved Lorenzo Carcaterra’s Three Dreamers, a poignant, unflinching, and uniquely powerful memoir that tells the story of the three women in his life - his grandmother Maria, his mother Raffaela, and his late wife Susan. Carcaterra paints a fascinating, moving, and page-turning portrait of these unforgettable women, each a product of her time, culture, and even location, whether Hell’s Kitchen in New York City or the beautiful island of Ischia, in Italy. But even more than that, through his transcendent talent, honesty, and emotional intelligence, Carcaterra has created a work that explores what women mean to the men in their lives, writ large. This is a book about love, about family, and about forgiveness. Every mother should read this book.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline

“Lorenzo Carcaterra looks back over his life and writes of the women that shaped his world view. From boyhood summers on Ischia, Lorenzo's Italian grandmother fed him stories and great meals, which built his imagination. His mother, Raffaella, through grief and hardship, sharpened the edges of his ambition, while his wife, Susan, an important journalist, served as the first reader of his bestselling books and a champion of his work. This deeply personal memoir weaves beauty, hilarity and loss into a glorious tapestry.”
—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Tony’s Wife

“Three Dreamers is a stunning triptych—a plaiting together of the lives of three powerful women who, together, have shaped the life and outlook of one man. This beautiful memoir is Lorenzo Carcaterra’s tribute to the most important women in his life, and a paean to joy, sorrow, and love.”
—Elissa Altman, author of Motherland
 

Praise for Lorenzo Carcaterra

“Terrifying and heartbreaking . . . a brilliant, troubling, important book.”
—Jonathan Kellerman, on Sleepers

“Crackles with action . . . a riveting and ingenious read that will keep you turning the pages.”
—Douglas Preston, on Midnight Angels

“A powerful read . . . with plenty of action and dialogue as authentic as the streets of New York.”
—St. Petersburg Times, on Paradise City

“A brilliant, multilayered novel that breathes and bleeds on every page. This book transcends the genre of crime fiction. It is a full-blooded novel and an epic read.”
—Robert Crais, on Gangster