My maternal grandfather, Giovanni, who figures in our book. In this photo from the early 1900s, Giovanni is making a friend, literally—in this case, Francesco Crispi, Garibaldi associate and first prime minister of Sicily. Family lore has it that King Victor Emanuel I personally applauded Giovanni on the unveiling of this work in Palermo. The spread of fascism throughout Italy kept Giovanni and his family from returning home; though one of his sons, my Uncle Frank (Francesco), ironically served as an American officer in the successful Sicilian campaign of World War II. Another of Giovanni’s sons, my Uncle John (Gianni), interrogated Italian and German prisoners of war as an officer of the O.S.S.