IN MY GRANDMOTHER’S SHADOW

A family mystery. An Italian journey. A story about love, identity, and belonging.

As a teenager, Linda’s grandmother, Filomena, shared a story she would never forget: at just five or six years old, Filomena had crossed the Atlantic alone with a man she didn’t know. “I was kidnapped,” she said.

Decades later, those words became the catalyst for a journey into the mountains of Southern Italy. Determined to uncover the truth behind her grandmother’s mysterious childhood, Linda traveled with her son and his partner to the small Puglian village of Castelluccio Valmaggiore, where generations of her family were born, lived, and died.

With the help of a local genealogist, she followed her ancestors’ footsteps through ancient streets, uncovered long-buried records, met relatives she never knew existed, and confronted questions that challenged the family story she thought she knew. Along the way, the search for answers became something more—a journey of discovery, connection, and a deeper appreciation for the people who shared in the adventure.

Rich with the sights, flavors, history, and warmth of Southern Italy, In My Grandmother’s Shadow explores what we inherit from those who came before us—and how understanding their stories can change our own. 

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PRAISE FOR IN MY GRANDMOTHER’S SHADOW

In My Grandmother’s Shadow explores the legacies of family mystery and family lore. Spanning nearly a century across two continents, Linda Schifino guides the reader from Pittsburgh to the narrow streets of small Italian mountain towns and the narrower streets of history. This is one immigrant girl’s story, one granddaughter’s story, one family story, but also, truly, a broadly American story.

Gerry LaFemina, author of The Pursuit: A Meditation on Happiness

In My Grandmother’s Shadow is the thoroughly unimaginable, harrowing tale of Filomena DeSantis who, in 1899, as a six-year-old, crossed the Atlantic from Italy to America in the company of “a man she didn’t know to be delivered to a father she hadn’t seen since she was a baby.” But there’s so much more. It’s also an account of Schifino’s unforgettable odyssey to unravel the mystery of her beloved grandmother; and, in so doing, discover the headwaters of her own identity by excavating, chapter and verse, layer by fascinating layer, the hitherto hidden vaults of famiglia. In My Grandmother’s Shadow is a bit of a hybrid, in all the best ways: mystery, ethnography, genealogy, and travelogue. Perhaps, more than anything, it is a praise-song, a love letter, to indomitable, breathtakingly courageous immigrants. Never has a book like In My Grandmother’s Shadow been more necessary, more life-affirming, more timely.

Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-14), author of East Liberty

In My Grandmother’s Shadow is full of a granddaughter’s love of family, both known and unknown. Schifino is our guide through her family’s history as she strives to make sense of her grandmother’s declaration of being kidnapped as a child and brought to America. There is heartbreak and trauma in this lovingly rendered memoir. Schifino writes with generosity and tenderness as she digs through genealogy sites, historical documents, and family memories. This is a story that will resonate with all of us whose knowledge of our families’ past is incomplete.

Valerie Bacharach, author of Last Glimpse

In 1899, six-year-old Filomena sets sail from Southern Italy to America with a man she doesn’t know. Generations later, Filomena’s granddaughter, Linda, is searching for answers— Was little Filomena kidnapped? What became of Filomena’s mother back in the old country?  Genealogy holds some clues, but the only hope of getting to the heart of Filomena’s story is an ancestral voyage to the little mountain village in Southern Italy where it all began. In My Grandmother’s Shadow is a necessary tale—not one of privilege, power, or grandeur, but of heartbreak, migration, hope, and sacrifice. If we measure society’s worth on how well we look after our dead, Linda Schifino has done her ancestors and her own descendants quite proud.

Michael Lockett, author of In The Cut

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