{"title":"Pietro Di Donato","description":"Pietro di Donato was born on April 3, 1911, in West Hoboken, New Jersey. When his bricklayer father, Geremio, died in a building collapse in 1923, Pietro left school to support his family as a construction worker. Though he had little formal education, Donato loved French and Russian novels, and took night classes at the city college in construction and engineering. Inspired by the works of Émile Zola, he decided to begin writing about his experiences in the Italian American community. In 1937 the first version of Christ in Concrete--a chronicle of his father's life--was published in Esquire. It was then expanded into a novel and became a bestseller. Donato wrote five more books in his lifetime. He died in 1992.","products":[{"product_id":"the-collected-stories-of-pietro-di-donato-paperback","title":"The Collected Stories of Pietro di Donato - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDi Donato hits where you live, to remember until you die. \u003c\/p\u003eThose who are familiar with the name Pietro di Donato usually begin and end their knowledge with his first novel, \u003cem\u003eChrist in Concrete\u003c\/em\u003e (1939). Here instead you will find the imaginative, pithy, and passionate word renderings of life according to the writer beyond that first novel. In every story you'll feel the fierce, unfiltered sensuality of a writer who turns contempt into expression, body parts into poetry, transgressions into confessions, and experiences into the basis for his political stands.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102545023199,"sku":"9781599542225","price":37.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/iwjJmLcPR49781599542225.webp?v=1781083460"},{"product_id":"christ-in-concrete-paperback","title":"Christ in Concrete - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGiving voice to the hardworking Italian immigrants who worked, lived, and died in New York City shortly before the Great Depression, this American classic ranks with Steinbeck's \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath a\u003c\/i\u003es one of the 20th century's great works of social protest.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Largely autobiographical, \u003ci\u003eChrist in Concrete\u003c\/i\u003e opens with the dramatic Good Friday collapse of a building under construction, crucifying in concrete an Italian construction worker, whose death leaves his pregnant wife and eight children impoverished. His oldest son, Paul, at just twelve years old, must take over his father's role--and his job. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Paul's odyssey into manhood begins on the high girders where death is an occupational hazard and a boy's dreams are the first fatality. Written in sonorous prose that recalls the speaker's Italian origins, Pietro di Donato's \u003ci\u003eChrist in Concrete\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a powerful social document and a deeply moving story about the American immigrant experience.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50103732109535,"sku":"9780451214218","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/1jMXSMkcK89780451214218.webp?v=1781097524"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/pietro-di-donato.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}