The Good Left Undone

A Novel

By: Adriana Trigiani

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Lisa Flanagan, Edoardo Ballerini, Deepti Gupta

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"[An] immersive saga. . . . A celebration of family and a paean to the power of storytelling.”—People, "Book of the Week"

"Trigiani conveys the beauty of Italy, the hardships of war, the taste of family recipes, and the enduring love of family."—Library Journal (starred)

“The beauty of any book by Adriana Trigiani is her ability to interweave life and fiction. . . . Don’t miss your chance to take this unforgettable journey with the Cabrelli women!” —Lisa Wingate, Book of the Month

From “a master of visual and palpable detail” (The Washington Post), comes a lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.

Matelda, the Cabrelli family’s matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother’s great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew. . . .

In the halcyon past, Domenica Cabrelli thrives in the coastal town of Viareggio until her beloved home becomes unsafe when Italy teeters on the brink of World War II. Her journey takes her from the rocky shores of Marseille to the mystical beauty of Scotland to the dangers of wartime Liverpool—where Italian Scots are imprisoned without cause—as Domenica experiences love, loss, and grief while she longs for home. A hundred years later, her daughter, Matelda, and her granddaughter, Anina, face the same big questions about life and their family’s legacy, while Matelda contemplates what is worth fighting for. But Matelda is running out of time, and the two timelines intersect and weave together in unexpected and heartbreaking ways that lead the family to shocking revelations and, ultimately, redemption.

A chaotic, rambling, bubbling mess of a story

I love the concept of the story. And I adore the details of Italian family and life.
But overall this was a hard listen. Firstly were the constantly changing narrators. Unusual use of a variety of readers. They didn’t change with characters, but randomly changed with chapters. As a listener, one subconsciously attempts to create correlations between the changing voices and the story- character? Location? But it just appears that the narrators were handed random chapters to read and then the audio book was knit together. It was very distracting.
Two of the narrators are among my favorites. But the narrator who started the book off was just horrible - flat, monotone, unbelievable.
The story line starts down one road and solidly navigates between two time periods. But about ten chapters in the author abandons the rhythm of telling the tale between current day and 1929 and just delivers the next dozen chapters in the 1929 plus period. It’s like we’ve forgotten about the other characters. Therefore when we suddenly return to the current day, it’s jarring and I actually forgot where we were with the present day story.
Altogether a novel that feels like it’s missed a final edit or maybe was an attempt at a unique story telling style. But missed.

Love at its finest.

Loved it. loved the characters and their stories. it was a little hard to follow with the jumping around in time

Familiar family story

In try Adriana Trigiani style she keeps your interest in the way she activates your senses. I enjoy her writing and story lines.

Good left undone

Excellent book, excellent readers, story was a good history lesson coupled with a good story.

Marvelous

An amazing story with words that etch your soul and words draw pictures before you