In her small collection, Micelotta Battigelli includes eight short stories narrated for the most part by young Italian Canadian voices (either children or young adults), who tell about challenging situations, lessons learned, and painful or unpleasant circumstances they had to face in life. The protagonists gradually uncover what their daily existence brought, unexpectedly, their way. Most of the stories are set in Canada, except for “Pigeon Soup,” which titles the collection and takes place in Italy. All accounts are set in the second half of the last century.
If the stories are different in terms of location, characters, and issues confronted, a thread that runs through them all is the sense of discovery brought by the meaningful events that each time forge the main characters; they all remember some significant experience that became part of who they are. In some cases, there is trauma; in other ones, some unforeseen, unexpected...
