Rafaella Cruciani presents her first nonfiction work

telling the story of the search for her Italian family roots. A compulsive habit of keeping a notebook and diary made her journey easy to begin, but the facts were as elusive as her ancestors, and after ten years of searching, the story that emerges makes her wish she had begun the process so much earlier.

Her forebears were people of substance, strength of character, and dogged determination with a common thread of needing to belong. Rafaella adds her own story to those of her ancestors, perpetuating the seemingly genetic desire to fit in.