Hoboken resident Laurie Fabiano always knew her great grandmother was worthy of more than a portrait on the wall – having survived the death of a husband, the grip of the pre-Mafia crime outfit The Black Hand, and the abduction of a 4-year-old daughter.
With the help of modern-day technology, Fabiano released her book, “Elizabeth Street,” on Kindle. A year later, the book was picked up and re-published by Amazon Encore to unanticipated success.
“The book became a really great link.” – Laurie Fabiano
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The making of the book
For years, Fabiano had heard just a little about her grandmother’s kidnapping by The Black Hand after she immigrated to America. She mostly remembered her great-uncle’s statement: “My mother outsmarted them.”
It wasn’t until Fabiano was in her early 30s that she got her 80-year-old grandmother to break her vow of silence. Three days passed as Fabiano sat with her grandmother, tape recorder in hand, watching as her otherwise vibrant grandmother “curled into herself” as she recounted the harrowing details of her abduction.
Ten more years passed as Fabiano researched the time period and wrote down her family’s history “in stolen moments.” During that time, Fabiano realized that re-working her family’s story as a novel would allow her “to ensure that it flowed as a great story.” The authenticity still remains, Fabiano says, with completely true events and a verbatim recount of the kidnapping and return.
With the help of high-powered literary agent Mort Janklow, Fabiano shopped her newly-completed book to several publishers, all of whom turned her down. Perhaps they were unsure what to do, Fabiano suggests, with a historical fiction novel with a strong female protagonist.
Second chance
After the rejections, Fabiano initially tucked “Elizabeth Street” into a drawer, but a glowing computer screen offered another avenue by which she could publish her novel.
In June of 2009, Fabiano self-released “Elizabeth Street” on Amazon without promotion of any kind. Through only word of mouth, her novel started to sell well.
It started to sell so well, in fact, that Amazon Encore, a program that spotlights overlooked books with a substantial viral buzz, republished it a year later, with the novel released in bookstores in May of this year.
In a matter of months, “Elizabeth Street” has become the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon Encore, was named one of Oprah’s “26 Best Summer Reads,” and is now sold internationally (rare for a first novel).
“Elizabeth Street” has also made its way into book clubs throughout America and beyond, even in states like Montana and Wisconsin without significant Italian-American populations.
A relatable tale
There was no question that Fabiano’s novel would strike a chord with Hobokenites, not only because of its rich Italian-American roots, but also because of the picture of early 20th century Hoboken that she paints in the final pages of her novel, as she walks her great-grandmother along the streets to the ferry.
When portraying her family’s move across the Hudson to New Jersey, Fabiano opted to talk about Hoboken, rather than Newark (where her family actually settled), because she knew the history better and the novel included more of her own life.
Fabiano has lived in Hoboken for over 30 years. During that time, she orchestrated Hoboken Celebration 1982, a three-month art and cultural festival, and served as deputy mayor for infamous Mayor Thomas Vezzetti from 1985 to 1988. Vezzetti was known for being a wacky reformer who campaigned using a bullhorn.
“It’s fun for people to see the forgotten names and buildings familiar to them,” Fabiano said of the book’s appeal to Hoboken’s longtime residents.
The Hoboken connection is not entirely made up. When Fabiano’s grandmother would cry while held captive, her kidnappers would hold up a teddy bear to the window and tell her, “Il lupo is going to get you.” “Il lupo,” it turned out, was the leader of The Black Hand, Fabiano discovered in a two-year search she conducted of the man. Her research revealed that this “wanted” man was hiding in Hoboken for years, with a brother who owned a food store in town.
For Italian-Americans, in New Jersey and beyond, the novel resurrects a wealth of history and is, according to Fabiano, “one of the first times Italian-Americans can read something they relate to…that rings true, in contrast to the romanticized version of the Mob.”
But this novel is not just for Italian-Americans. Of “Elizabeth Street,” Fabiano said, “I think that certainly anyone from an immigrant background can appreciate the book.”
As with many immigrants who come to America, for Italian-Americans in the early 20th century, “a series of events…conspired to make their lives impossible,” according to Fabiano.
Italy had just undergone unification, and times had become desperate with rampant hunger and stiff taxes. Many immigrated to America to find work and to send money back to their families in Italy. But in America, Italians found themselves discriminated against, wedged into dangerous jobs, and victimized by predators who preyed upon a poor community.
According to Fabiano’s research, 50 percent went back to Italy between the turn of the century and 1921, a greater percent than probably any other immigrant group – “aside from Mexicans these days,” she notes.
Back then, Fabiano said, it was all about compilismo, translated as “who your circle of trust is is whoever hears the church’s bell.”
Shaking the leaves
After she wrote the book, Fabiano said she started to receive a lot of e-mails starting with the line, “I think you’re my cousin…” After learning of second and third cousins across the Atlantic, Fabiano rented a space at 720 Monroe St. in Hoboken and hosted a family reunion at the end of the summer.
At the reunion, about 90 cousins whom Fabiano had never met convened for the first time, exchanging family stories and e-mails. Since the reunion, they have continued to speak with one another through an e-mail chain.
“The book became a really great link,” Fabiano said.