{"product_id":"9781098312985","title":"Of Saints and Wooden Nickels: An American Story","description":"When my father was just sixteen years old, he stole several hundred dollars from a family member and took a train with a friend from Chicago to New York, where they procured fake baptismal certificates and subsequently a fake passports. From there, they sailed to Italy aboard a steamer. My dad was in search of a family secret. Along the way, all of his money and his passport were stolen, and there he was: an American teenager alone, adrift in Mussolini's Italy without papers. After a year of wild adventures abroad, many prayers to the saints, a Grand Jury hearing, and a strong dose of Buona Fortuna, my father somehow found his way back home to Chicago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf Saints and Wooden Nickels is an odyssey of epic proportions, a true coming-of-age-tale that will appeal to readers of all ages, a story of one young Italian-American on a quest to learn about his family, himself, and the world outside Chicago. While I have fictionalized parts of the story for continuity, it is based almost entirely on actual events told to me by my father over many breakfast meetings.","brand":"BookBaby","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47881510977777,"sku":"9781098312985","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/9781098312985_p0.jpg?v=1773023669","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781098312985","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}