We interrupt this whine...

...to bring you a plug for my friend Lina Medaglia's recently published novel. Lina is a member of my book club and a professor at George Brown College. For years we knew she was slaving away on her PhD thesis, which we learned took the form of a novel based on her family's history of coming from a small village in Calabria, Italy, to Toronto in the 1960s. Eventually she published it with a small press in Toronto, Innana Publications, and of course we chose it as a selection for our club because we love Lina. Little did we know what a superb writer we had in our midst.

The Demons of Aquilonia is a beautifully crafted tale of family secrets, small-town Italian life in the first half of the 20th century, the immigrant experience, the lives of women under the thumb of men and family strictures, as well as the lives of men under the thumb of their own oppressors. It addresses the question of what is better left behind and what will stay with you throughout your life. The plot is intricately woven and kept me turning the pages into the night.

It's hard for a small press to drum up any attention for a first-time novel, and I haven't seen any reviews of the book so far. So this is my little attempt to bring it some attention.