Kirjahaku

“A murder mystery, a model of investigative reporting, a celebration of the fierce bonds that hold families together through tragedies…Murder in Matera is a gem.” — San Francisco Chronicle "Tantalizing" — NPR “A thrilling detective story… Stapinski pursues the study of her family’s criminal genealogy with unexpected emotional results.” — Library Journal A writer goes deep into the heart of Italy to unravel a century-old family mystery in this spellbinding memoir that blends the suspenseful twists of Making a Murderer and the emotional insight of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels.Since childhood, Helene Stapinski heard lurid tales about her great-great-grandmother, Vita. In Southern Italy, she was a loose woman who had murdered someone. Immigrating to America with three children, she lost one along the way. Helene’s youthful obsession with Vita deepened as she grew up, eventually propelling the journalist to Italy, where, with her own children in tow, she pursued the story, determined to set the record straight.Finding answers would take Helene ten years and numerous trips to Basilicata, the rural "instep" of Italy’s boot—a mountainous land rife with criminals, superstitions, old-world customs, and desperate poverty. Though false leads sent her down blind alleys, Helene’s dogged search, aided by a few lucky—even miraculous—breaks and a group of colorful local characters, led her to the truth. Yes, the family tales she’d heard were true: There had been a murder in Helene’s family, a killing that roiled 1870s Italy. But the identities of the killer and victim weren’t who she thought they were. In revisiting events that happened more than a century before, Helene came to another stunning realization—she wasn’t who she thought she was, either.Weaving Helene’s own story of discovery with the tragic tale of Vita’s life, Murder in Matera is a literary whodunit and a moving tale of self-discovery that brings into focus a long ago tragedy in a little-known region remarkable for its stunning sunny beauty and dark buried secrets.

Now a PBS documentary, this astonishing memoir of growing up in rough-and-tumble Jersey City "will steal your heart" (People) With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir Mary Karr calls "a page-turner," Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City--a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight--with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking and hysterically funny. Praise for Five-Finger Discount "By turns hilarious and alarming, Helene Stapinski's] book reads on the surface like something by Damon Runyon and Elmore Leonard, with a dark undertow of real-life pain and disillusion."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "It's a brilliant book, a darling book. It is the blessedly modest chronicle of a magical consciousness that seems to have been born pulling diamonds out of the muck, hearing angels' voices in the fiercest thunder. . . . I adored every word of this wondrous book. Get it. Read it."--Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun "In the tradition of . . . Rita Mae Brown and Amy Tan, Ms. Stapinski is an exciting writer, unabashedly candid, and at the same time unashamedly self-contained. Five-Finger Discount is a must-read."--Victoria Gotti, The New York Observer "What Frank] McCourt did for Limerick, Ireland, Helene Stapinski does for Jersey City."--The Star-Ledger "Hugely entertaining."--The Sunday Times (London)

______________ ‘Hugely entertaining and poignant' - Sunday Times ‘A welcome antidote to knee-jerk nostalgia ... Stapinski's prose hits like bullets ... visceral and memorable' - Image ______________ ‘The night my grandfather tried to kill us, I was five years old, the age I stopped believing in Santa Claus ...' Helene Stapinski had been playing in the family's apartment above the Majestic Tavern in Jersey City when, in the bar downstairs, Grandpa - an ex-con and armed robber - pointed his loaded gun and bragged he had a bullet for each of them. But news travelled fast and within minutes Helene was watching a handcuffed Grandpa go to jail for the last time. The Stapinskis have a knack for breaking the law. Helene's daily bread was stolen by her father from the cold storage company where he worked and the books on her shelves were swiped from the local bookbinding company. In her own generation, her first cousin embezzled a quarter of a million dollars, tearing the clan apart. All these stories are part of Helene's unbelievable heritage and of Five Finger Discount, a raucous and heartbreaking tale.