Thanks to Ecco Books for the free copy of this book.

Narrated by her granddaughter, THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA is, well, the story of the life of Stella Fortuna and all the times she nearly died, from a childhood incident with boiling oil in her rural Italian village to a head injury in her old age in Connecticut. More interesting, of course, is the story of the life she lived between these near-death experiences.

This book totally drew me in. The writing is warm and lush, never overwrought. Given that the story is based on the author’s real-life grandmother, it really has the feel of a person telling her family history, sorting through lore and legend to find the truth.

And Stella. She belongs on the shelf with Evelyn, Kya, and other literary women fighting the patriarchy for the right to live the kind of life she wants to live. She’s the kind of woman who got labeled “prickly” or “difficult,” when really she’s just pushing against the boundaries placed on her, unwilling to let men take what they want from her.