Cambridge Street - Paperback

by Steven Decker (Author)

Primo Magazine Book Review by Truby Chiaviello, Publisher and Editor
"Author Decker is to be praised for writing an excellent novel. His words make for an entertaining love letter to his immigrant grandparents and his home city, Chicago. Cambridge Street is to be relished. A great book!"

Italian American Foundation Book Review by Linda Binkley
"Cambridge Street is Mr. Decker's first novel, and I really must compliment him on his outstanding character development. Not just the main characters but all the peripheral characters are multi-dimensional and unforgettable. It was an enjoyable read and the pages just flew by. Mr. Decker - you are an amazing author."

St John's University, Queens, New York
Sicilian Sunrise
Book Review by Nino Provenzano, Sicilian American Poet

"This novel is rich in detail. In the pages of Cambridge Street the reader will find the importance of family values, will encounter the honest hard-working immigrant, the good Samaritan, the hardened criminal, the corrupt politician, the rotten cop, the good cop, the good neighbor, the priest who is a doer, a courageous man who puts his life on the line, to save innocent people. Anyone who calls himself or herself an American, other than a Native American, should be able to identify his or her ancestors with this immigrant story. This novel is a great subject for an historical movie."

Synopsis
Forced to leave Sicily, the Tomaso family arrives in freezing, squalid Chicago at the dawning of the Roaring 20s. Home is now a 4th floor apartment in a tenement building on Cambridge Street in Little Sicily, known locally as Little Hell. Slaughterhouse wages, even after working twelve hours a day, barely pay the rent and feed the family. Survival is a day-to-day struggle but they are determined that their children will become Americans.

The neighborhood crime boss runs the people and businesses in the neighborhood with an iron fist. His brutal enforcers keep everyone in line. When an act of unforgiveable violence is committed against his family, Paolo Tomaso swears revenge. The Don will not - cannot - tolerate disrespect and sends killers to murder Paolo publicly as an example.

With the young father's violent death imminent and certain, the couple stands together - and alone - against the monsters who wait outside their door. Their actions will determine who they are as people and decide the futures of their children.

Reader's Comment

"Author Steven Decker portrays the love, courage, determination, strength, harsh realities, painful decisions, and hope all intertwined in the immigrant experience. This story celebrates family and the triumphant power of selfless, unconditional love in the face of countless obstacles and even great evil.

Cambridge Street is a heartfelt, realistic, and thought-provoking glimpse of the great immigrant story that is the United States. It is a MUST READ! I absolutely love this book."

Author Biography

Author Steven Decker grew up in a large, thriving Sicilian family on the north side of Chicago. He never forgot the family stories about the struggles of his immigrant grandparents: how they survived terrible poverty, life during Prohibition and their encounters with gangsters. He has woven many of those true events into an exciting fictional tale spanning a half century. "Cambridge Street is for the millions of immigrants from Italy and the world that came to America to give their families better lives," said Decker. "They helped build our country, feed its people and fight its wars. Now, with the passing of years, their bravery and sacrifices are being forgotten. We must not let that happen."