In 1910 Sab? Parella makes the journey from northern Italy to southern Colorado to join her husband who had gone ahead to work in the coal mines. But when Sab? arrives along the banks of the Purgatoire River, he is nowhere to be found.
Based on Prato’s ancestors, Purgatoire paints a gripping portrait of Italian immigrants in rural America, and how the shame and secrecy of one man’s abandonment haunts a family for generations. A single mother fights to reunite with her children, an immortal cat yearns for kin, a bootlegger’s recklessness devastates his family, queer folk escape to secret spaces, and stranded spirits narrate, converse, and sometimes violate the laws of their realm: they interfere with the fate of the living.
Melding familial research with richly imagined fiction, Prato weaves a mesmerizing story of the complex relationships between parents and children, the transcendent need for connection and redemption, and what we owe to our true desires.
Author: Liz Prato
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Forest Avenue Press
Published: 04/07/2026
Pages: 252
Weight: 1lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781942436690
Language: English
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