You Were There Before My Eyes: A Novel

Summary

A woman leaves her Italian village and enters a new world as an immigrant in Detroit in this sweeping novel by a New York Times bestselling author.

In a small village in Italy at the turn of the twentieth century, Jane chafes at stifling routine and tradition. So when an opportunity presents itself to immigrate to America, her hunger for escape compels her to leave everything behind. Far away, in Henry Ford's factories in Michigan, a new kind of life is taking shape, and it offers gleaming promise for Jane and her young husband. Determined to survive, and even thrive, she will find herself seeking fulfillment and building a family while navigating not just a new language and country, but a world poised on the edge of economic and social revolution, with the Great War looming on the horizon.

From the chaos of Ellis Island to the melting pot of a midwestern industrial city, You Were There Before My Eyes is rich with colorful characters and vivid period details, an authentic portrait of the immigrant experience that poignantly captures the ever-evolving nature of the American dream, and "a dazzling historical saga of love, adventure, war, hardship, and discovery" (Allan Levine).