The Great Monroe High School Fire is based upon events surrounding the unsolved arson fire that did major damage to James Monroe High School in the South Bronx over thirty years ago. The characters are inspired by the young people who survived that era of gangs, drugs, and a failing educational system. The narrator, Joey Sanchez, lives astride the worlds of his Italian mother and his absent Puerto Rican father and is influenced by the very different people in his life. His impoverished mother is the one person whom he cannot bear to disappoint. His closest friend Sapo joins him in a frenzy of...

For the millions of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith was an inspired prophet of God. For many other millions, he was a consummate con man, the founder of an authoritarian cult that was discredited even in his own time. This new historical novel gives voice to Joseph Smith's long-forgotten sister, Sophronia, who tells the story of their shared lives from early childhood to his violent death. She was there when he saw God and uncovered the golden plates that became the Book of Mormon. She was a witness to his first experiments with polygamy, and to the...

-In the Forest of Tombolo- is inspired by the experiences of an American soldier during the closing days of World War II. By the time John Squillace fell in love with Michelina Colonna, he had deserted from the American army and ended up with a group of renegades and deserters inhabiting a tract of wasteland near Pisa. When the outlaw camp in the forest of Tombolo was broken up, John was assigned to guard the American poet Ezra Pound, who had spent the war making broadcasts for Mussolini. Before he can be reunited with his love, John is sent to the Pacific. When he finds her again after many...