The Queen Of The Big Time (2004)

Nary a knot goes untied in this early-20th-century coming-of-age story, following the Castelluca clan of immigrant farmers in Roseto, Pa. Deaths lead to births, dreams deferred yield wondrous new visions, and absent lovers inevitably return. (As a priest. At an ex-lover's wedding rehearsal.) Our narrator is Nella, a headstrong teen with academic ambitions and an unflagging ardor for poet/playboy Renato Lanzara. If Trigiani is not blessed with subtlety -- how many times must she mention that treacherous mine shaft? -- her intensely detailed characters compensate.