The Feathers of Fortunato: The Secrets, Success and Survival of an Italian Immigrant Family

Ride the roller coaster from rags to riches, financially and emotionally, following this Italian immigrant family who found the American dream, lost it and recovered a legacy of strength and success through the 20th century’s tumultuous Twenties, desperate Thirties, and flourishing Forties.

Marino finds the feathers of the millinery trade open doors to high society for him and his brothers, a career that allows for contacts with notorious underworld characters and brings him true love. But when society falls from prosperity to poverty during the Depression, it’s the women of the family that set a course for survival through their cunning connections with Broadway starlets, Mafioso hit men, Italian speakeasies, and the haute couture of WW II German-occupied Paris.

Soar through history with the flight of this immigrant family as they negotiate women’s suffrage, Roaring Twenties flappers, bootleggers in Prohibition, World War politics and their effects on families, transitions in hats and hairstyles, and the progress of technology from the Model-T to the Lunar Lander.