THE ITALIANS AT CLEAT’S CORNER STORE
Scribe, $29.99 pb, 384 pp, 9781922070883
Fiction
The Italians at Cleat's Corner Store
by Alex Cothren •
During World War II, billeted Axis POWs were deemed such a threat to the morals of British women that theBritish government enacted legislation proscribing amorous fraternisation. Although these laws were rescinded in the conflict’s aftermath, Jo Riccioni’s début novel demonstrates that the appeal of the foreigner endured, as a family of Italians arrive to disrupt the postwar calm of Leyton, an east London farming community.
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