Gabriella's Book of Fire

At once sexually robust and mawkishly romantic, Australian writer Armanno's novel loses some of its considerable interest in overwrought passages of emotional angst. In 1975 Brisbane, 14-year-old Salvatore ""Sam"" Capistrano falls in love with his new neighbor, rampantly red-haired, exuberantly spirited Gabriella Zazo. Both their families are Sicilian immigrants, and green-eyed Gabriella bears the shame of her mother's adulterous affair with an Irish butcher. Armanno aims to depict Gabriella as incandescent, but she comes across as mercurially fey and a sexual tease. Maddeningly elusive, Gabriella hints at a soul-wrenching secret that Sam won't discover for two decades. Meanwhile, she convinces a reluctant Sam to help her bring her octogenarian grandfather, Enrico Belpasso, to a brothel, in hopes that sexual fulfillment will shock her nonno out of the fugue state he's been in since his wife died. While Enrico is engaged with the prostitutes, Gabriella disappears, and Sam is blamed by everyone for her presumed death. Gabriella's fate continues to haunt Sam, especially after he finds her diary, titled Gabriella's Book of Fire. Twenty years later, after several career failures, and with both his marriage and his peace of mind seriously threatened by Gabriella's memory, Sam confronts the past in a series of diminishingly credible events. Armanno paves new ground for American readers in evoking the bigotry that Sicilians endure as outsiders in Australian society, as well as the cohesion of their family life. Having Sam lovingly describe his recipes for traditional Sicilian cuisine adds flavor to the narrative. But romance-magazine dialogue, shaky character motivation and melodramatic confrontations eventually undermine the positive aspects of the novel, which culminates with a too-tidy gathering of the loose ends. (Jan. 17) Forecast: Several of Armanno's previous six novels (not published here) have been optioned for film, and it's possible that the colorful characters in this latest effort will prove attractive as movie material. If so, the novel could benefit down the road.