Three Dreamers

A Memoir of Family

By: Lorenzo Carcaterra

Narrated by: Lorenzo Carcaterra

Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

“As nourishing as a three-course Italian feast, this is a fierce, moving tribute to the ties that bind.” (People, Book of the Week)

The number one New York Times best-selling author of Sleepers offers a heartfelt homage to the women who taught him courage, kindness, and the power of storytelling: his mother, his grandmother, and his late wife.

Standing with his children near his grandmother’s grave on a recent trip to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, Lorenzo Carcaterra realized how much of his life has been shaped by the women who taught him how to look for joy and overcome sorrow. This book is his tribute to them.

Nonna Maria, his grandmother, gave him his first taste of a loving home during the summers he spent with her as a teenager on Ischia. With her kindness, her humor, and the same formidable strength she employed to make secret trips for food when the Nazis occupied Ischia during World War II, she instilled in him the importance of community, providing shelter for a boy whose home life was difficult.

His mother, Raffaela, dealt with daily hardships: a loveless and abusive marriage, the burden of debt, and a life of dread. Though the lessons she taught were harsh, they would drive Lorenzo from the world they shared to the better one she always prayed he would find.

The third woman is his wife, Susan, a gifted editor and his professional champion. Their marriage lasted three decades before her death from lung cancer in 2013. While their upbringings were wildly different, their love and friendship never wavered — and neither did her faith in Lorenzo’s talent and potential as a writer.

©2021 Lorenzo Carcaterra (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“I loved Lorenzo Carcaterra’s Three Dreamers, a poignant, unflinching, and uniquely powerful memoir. Carcaterra paints a fascinating, moving, and page-turning portrait of three unforgettable women, each a product of her time, culture, and even location, whether Hell’s Kitchen in New York City or the beautiful island of Ischia in Italy. But even more than that, through his transcendent talent, honesty, and emotional intelligence, Carcaterra has created a work that explores what women mean to the men in their lives, writ large. This is a book about love, about family, and about forgiveness. Every mother should read this book.” (Lisa Scottoline, number one New York Times best-selling author)

“Lorenzo Carcaterra looks back over his life and writes of the women that shaped his world view. During boyhood summers on Ischia, Lorenzo’s Italian grandmother fed him stories and great meals, which built his imagination. His mother, Raffaella, through grief and hardship, sharpened the edges of his ambition, while his wife, Susan, an important journalist, served as the first reader of his best-selling books and a champion of his work. This deeply personal memoir weaves beauty, hilarity, and loss into a glorious tapestry.” (Adriana Trigiani, New York Times best-selling author)

“Three Dreamers is a stunning triptych — a plaiting together of the lives of three powerful women who, together, have shaped the life and outlook of one man. This beautiful memoir is Lorenzo Carcaterra’s tribute to the most important women in his life, and a paean to joy, sorrow, and love.” (Elissa Altman, author of Motherland) 

Great story

A wonderful tribute to the women in his life. He is to be congratulated on becoming a kind and compassionate man, in spite of having a dysfunctional childhood and an abusive father. He is a very good writer and has written a very engaging memoir.

Beautiful

This is a non-fiction book about the three women who most influenced the author’s life. It’s a beautiful story about his grandmother, mother and wife.

The chapters devoted to each person are filled with emotional stories. Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you sad, other angry. In the end the book warmed my heart and made me long for more.

The narration was good. I liked that the author himself was telling the story.