A Sweeping Italian American Story - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Copper Horizon"

Book Blurb:

What would you do for your family? An epic saga inspired by real lives.

BEYOND THE COPPER HORIZON brings a sweeping Italian-American immigrant story vividly to life. Opening at the Battle of Novara in 1849, conscripted farmer Domenico Zanotto returns home to his alpine village of Cuceglio anticipating domestic peace in a burgeoning Italian nation. The war-scarred, cavalryman is instead devastated by lost love and violent nightmares. He questions God and labors in the vineyards in quiet despair until he finds unexpected love and hope in Catterina, a confident young woman twenty years his junior. Their family life is upended when disease, poverty, and death force them to join the earliest wave of Piemontese immigrants seeking wage paying jobs in the booming copper mines of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. In America, they face grueling working conditions, brutal winters, shattering loss, and the harsh prejudices of immigrant life. Only after achieving a measure of stability for his family, does Domenico realize what ultimately must be sacrificed in the pursuit of a better life for future generations.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/g6V1

Author Bio:

Bob Zanotti grew up in a large, hard-working family in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He credits travel opportunities to France and Italy as a young man with profoundly changing his worldview. A memorable Christmas visit to the Italian village of Cuceglio, the ancestral home of his family, ignited a lifetime passion for family history.

Bob earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in French and Business Administration from Illinois Wesleyan University, an MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and he is a United States Army veteran. A seasoned general manager, Bob is lifelong learner with keen interests in leadership and organizational development.

Now turning his talents to writing, Bob weaves meticulous genealogical and historical research with a storyteller’s heart, crafting emotionally rich narratives that explore depths and heights of our timeless human experience. His debut novel, Beyond the Copper Horizon, invites readers on a journey, not just to understand the past, but to feel it.

Bob and his wife, Laurie, reside in southeast Wisconsin and are the proud parents of four sons. They both cherish time spent with family in their beloved Door County.

Editorial Review:

Title: Beyond the Copper Horizon

Author: Robert Martin Zanotti

Rating: 4.4

Robert Martin Zanotti's "Beyond the Copper Horizon" follows the life of Domenico Zanotto who at the beginning of the novel is fighting in the first Italian War of Independence. But behind all the war, we see a dreamer- a man with dirt under his nails. At heart, he is not a soldier but a farmer. The story covers themes of trauma, resilience, love, and the immigrant experience.

"He had been just twenty years old when he was conscripted three long years ago, forced to leave his dreams behind..."

The reader realizes that Domenico was forced to grow up fast, especially following his enlisting as a soldier, not because he wanted but because the war needed bodies. The reader sees his courage, not in what he is doing now but in how badly he wants to recover his initial dreams. This passage primes us for the central struggle of his life, where life forces on him the direct opposite of what be yearns for.

"Domenico wanted to be encouraging, yet he worried. Just like images of war, the memories of the births of each of his siblings were etched in his mind. Nervous anticipation, his mother screaming in pain. Joy, sometimes sorrow. A woman in Cuceglio had recently bled to death while giving birth."

Domenico's trauma did not just originate from the war, but also from life itself. Here, his wife is pregnant but he is terrified inside from memories of his mother giving birth. The reader fears that history might repeat itself, especially as they remember that instead of returning to a happy marriage, PTSD had showed up right before his first love left him to become a nun. Additionally, smallpox had kicked in and took his parents and siblings.

“But how did he get so desperate?”

“As you know, I was once there, feeling like there is no escape. Look at our times. Stefano, no less, was the leader, the hope of many desperate people. I have no idea what else he was involved with, but I know my friend. I will honor him.”

Domenico's best friend has just taken his life after he failed to see any way forward as a farmer and as a coop leader. Domenico reveals that he was once there, hopeless from the pile of many losses. The reader remembers that he once put a shotgun in his mouth but something stopped him. Here, he earns the reader's respect for being compassionate for someone who made a choice he himself almost made. He could have easily judged his friend, but he doesn't. That's the mark of a truly good man.

But even a good man can be broken. The reader remembers this even as they encounter circumstances that later force Domenico to leave his homeland for America. The reader, having witnessed his resilience and his wounds, can't help but wonder whether he will remain strong, and whether he will finally find the lasting peace he has been craving.

Writing Domenico as a character is without a doubt an endeavour that must have been deeply personal and emotionally heavy for Zannotti, because it was based on his ancestor- his great-great-grandfather. That means he wasn't just inventing a character, but rather, bringing a real person back to life. He had to balance fact and imagination which is usually a tight-rope walk even for the most gifted authors. But on this one he out-did himself giving us a man we can learn from and who also becomes a window into what it means to struggle and to lose, but still manage to rise and keep going.

Reading "Beyond the Copper Horizon" is like being on a rollercoaster, except the rollercoaster keeps stopping for picnics and grape picking. It is a book that understands that life is not all tragedy or joy, but a mix of both. The laughter in the story lands differently because you have previously cried, and the quiet moments mean more because you have previously seen the chaos. This is an emotional story that feels like a journey, but a journey where you are allowed to take snacks on the way. That's rare and kind. And additionally, that's why it's unforgettable.

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