The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Teenage sweethearts, Enza and Ciro meet in the Italian Alps but are quickly separated. Ciro is banished from his village after discovering a scandal with a local priest and travels to New York to apprentice with a shoemaker. Enza also leaves Italy for New York with her father to create a future for their financially challenged family. Unknowingly living within blocks of one another, both Ciro and Enza begin new lives apart until a chance meeting allows them to be together once again. Unfortunately, Ciro has already enlisted for WWI and unwillingly leaves Enza after their short lived reunion. While Ciro is off fighting battles, Enza dedicates herself to her work and becomes a renowned seamstress for the Metropolitan Opera House, poised to become an even bigger success. Then Ciro returns from the war, and both are resolved never to leave each other again.

With lush depictions of life in the Italian Alps to the cramped quarters of New York, Trigiani is adept at immersing the reader into the lives of her star-crossed protagonists. The romantic tension is a constant ebb as Ciro and Enza seem fated to be together but obstacles to their happiness arise keeping them apart. Fortunately, both characters are entirely likable and reading about their lives apart is still a joy. Historical fiction fans will savor this epic tale of love and loss as well as other books by Trigiani.