“Gilda Morina Syverson’s beautiful memoir, My Father’s Daughter, From Rome to Sicily, is so rife with Italianate passion and sentiment that I was often spirited away – not just to Rome and Sicily, but to my parents’ kitchen, and the precincts of my past I most cherish. This is a travel book in every sense. Syverson – a savvy, funny, elegant tour guide – expertly escorts us through the gorgeous time-locked terrain of Italy, but also along the often precarious byways of the heart. This book risks everything: its humanity, its courage, its sheer unbridled candor, the moving sweep of its poetic language and its refusal to turn away from the breathtaking mystery of love and ancestry. Bravissimo!”

~ Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2012-2014, author of Half of What I Say Is Meaningless, Essays