Pears On a Willow Tree (1998)

In Pears On a Willow Tree, newly married Rose emigrates from Poland to Detroit in 1919 with her husband, bringing her Old World dowry — ''eight pillowcases, four sets of bedsheets, twelve napkins, three tablecloths, ten feet of bobbin lace, two feather quilts,'' the clothes on her back, and an awful lot of patience and New World hope. Rose, her daughter, Helen, granddaughter, Ginger, and great-granddaughter, Amy, narrate their own stories in turn. Leslie Pietrzyk's debut novel, inspired by her own grandmother's pierogi recipe, is a kitchen tale — all women, no men — but satisfying nonetheless. B