Hilary Hauck. From Ashes to Song. Milford House, 2021.

From Ashes to Song might appeal to readers of historical romances. Having said that, it is not exactly a formulaic romance, though the diversions from the formula are subtle.

Pietro, a young man from Northern Italy, has perfect pitch. He loves music, and sounds move him more than anything. Due to family circumstances, he decides to leave Italy shortly before World War I. While on the ship, he hears the voice of Assunta. It is love at first sound. He cannot forget her voice.

Assunta’s life is somewhat complicated, though. Her husband Nandy (Fernandino) is accompanying her to the New World. He had been there for a few years. He had wanted to marry Assunta, but her father did not approve of him. He left Italy and settled in Pennsylvania where he married and began a family. He retuned to Italy when his first wife died and married Assunta.

Not knowing that Nandy and Assunta belong to each other, Pietro meets Nandy on the boat where Nandy gives him an address of an Italian boarding house in Pennsylvania coal country. Through most of the book, Pietro has a tune in his head that he wants to compose and play. It is inspired in part by his father who taught him to play the clarinet and partly by the woman he heard on the boat.

Eventually, their paths cross since both Pietro and Nandy settle not far from each other in Pennsylvania. To say much more would spoil things. Both Nandy and Assunta betray some of the traditional Italian superstitions about evil that may affect their behavior. Nandy makes a living as a miner. Pietro ends up working in the same mine, tapping on the walls and ceilings of the mine tunnels to listen with his acute hearing for potential hollows that could contain dangerous gases.

From Ashes to Song realistically portrays some of the challenges and culture of Italian immigrants coming to America in the early twentieth century. The story in broad strokes reminded me of some relatives who came over at the same time. The woman had a total of eight children, four from each of her two husbands. She remarried soon after her first husband died. It is a little different for Assunta, but not by much.

Being a native of the fringes of Pennsylvania coal country, I can also vouch for the relative accuracy of the life of the miner. Even in the sixties some houses where I lived in Western Pennsylvania were heated by coal. I had a relative who worked as a coal distributor. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, our class visited a nearby coal mine on a field trip. From Ashes to Song gets the setting and the people pretty well.

Most people in most places in the history of the world have to make a living. This causes tension for those who are artistically inclined. As the title suggests, Pietro does what he can to make a living and still use his talent both in labor and in his music. The music becomes a labor of love. He may ultimately only be famous in his family, but even folk art speaks to other folk.