Christ in Concrete

Christ in Concrete - Paperback

$25.00
$25.00
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Christ in Concrete
  • Christ in Concrete
Christ in Concrete - Paperback

Christ in Concrete - Paperback

by Pietro Di Donato
$25.00
$25.00

Book Overview

Giving 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 The Grapes of Wrath as one of the 20th century's great works of social protest.

Largely autobiographical, Christ in Concrete 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.

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 Christ in Concrete is at once a powerful social document and a deeply moving story about the American immigrant experience.
ISBN9780451214218
Author Pietro Di Donato
PublisherBerkley Books
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedSeptember 2004
LanguageENG- English
Pages240
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceTeens & young adults and Adults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Classics Fiction Literary Psychological

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More by Pietro Di Donato

The Collected Stories of Pietro di Donato

The Collected Stories of Pietro di Donato - Paperback

The Collected Stories of Pietro di Donato - Paperback

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About Pietro Di Donato

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.

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