Last July, I received a subscription to Parnassus Books First Editions Club, which each month delivers a signed, first-edition copy of a book, hand-picked by the staff of the Nashville, Tenn., bookstore.
In February, the selection was “Brass,” a debut novel by Xhenet Aliu.
The story put me in two unfamiliar places: a rundown Connecticut town where the brass industry once thrived, and inside the lives of Eastern European immigrants. I didn’t know what to expect, but Aliu’s story covers themes we all are familiar with: mothers and daughters, love and death, hope for the future.
The story is told through alternating voices: Elsie, a second-generation Lithuanian immigrant who falls for an Albanian cook at the Betsy Ross Diner, where she works as a waitress, and their daughter, Luljeta. Each is resilient, despite absent fathers, low-wage jobs and college rejections.
Readers will feel for Elsie and Luljeta, especially as they track down the man most central to their lives — Bashkim, the Albanian cook who is Luljeta’s father. In the end, I cried as they chased after him one last time.Brass
By Xhenet Aliu
Random House
