November Blog Tour Pick Brooklyn Story by Suzanne Corso

“Corso gets the Brooklyn dialect pitch-perfect and keeps the pace brisk. . . .

The universal story of longing, loyalty, and growing up rings true.” – Publishers Weekly

“As familiar as the story is, Brooklyn Story escapes

the formula with a true female voice. “ – The New York Times

“This is a wonderful and moving nostalgia trip. Corso is a gifted and sensitive writer, and her debut novel is straight from the heart.” – Nelson DeMille

Gallery Books is proud to offer BROOKLYN STORY by Suzanne Corso as a November Blog pick

One of USA Today’s New Voices of 2011

Her story begins in Bensonhurst, but only she can write the next chapter…

From first-time novelist Suzanne Corso and based on events from her own life comes BROOKLYN STORY a sweet and engaging story about a woman coming into her own.

It’s the summer of 1978 , and Samantha Bonti is fifteen years old half Jewish and half Italian, whose dreams of something more are bigger than the neighborhood girls’ teased hair. She lives in Bensonhurst with her mother, Joan, a woman abandoned and scarred in a ruinous marriage, poisoned with cynicism, and shackled by additions; and with her Grandma Ruth, Samantha’s loudest and most pointed source of encouragement. As flawed as they are, they are family.

Samantha’s best friend is Janice Caputo, girl who understands, as well as Samantha does, this close-knit community of ancestors and traditions that stand like roadblocks, this insular overcrowded little world of controlling mobsters who mold their women like Jell-O; and of the wannabes, the charismatic guys who are willing to engage in anything illegal to get a shot at playing with the big boys. Yet, Samantha has something Janice doesn’t – a desire to become a writer and to escape the destiny that is assumed for all of them in the outer reaches of Bensonhurst. And that dream is right across the Brooklyn Bridge. Then comes Tony Kroon.

Older than Samantha, Tony is a blond-haired, blue-eyed, half-Sicilian, half-Dutch mobster wannabe. A Bensonhurst Adonis. Samantha empathizes with Tony’s struggles and is taken in by his adoring attention. She falls in love, even though she is warned never to question Tony’s life. Even when her family and friends warn her to stay away. Even when Samantha knows she’s too smart to fall this deep…but the last thing she wants is the first thing to happen. Unable to resist Tony’s seductive charms, Samantha soon first herself swallowed up by dangerous circumstances that threaten to jeopardize more than her dreams. Grandma Ruth’s advice: Samantha had better write herself out of this story and into a new one, fast.

Told from the adult perspective, this is a powerful, true-to-life novel of leaving the past to history and the future to fate – of restoring hope where there was none, and reaching for dreams in an inspiring promise of paradise called Manhattan.

“This 1970s coming-of-age story will have you rooting for Sam to avoid the pitfalls of life in her Bensonhurst neighborhood and achieve her dream. The characters in this debut novel are richly drawn, as is the setting.” - Romantic Times

If you would like to receive a copy of BROOKLYN STORY please contact Kristin Dwyer at kristin.dwyer@simonandschuster.com

The blog tour date is November 11^th