The Magical Espresso Machine - Hardcover

by Andrew Louis Botieri (Author), Jesse Morgan (Illustrator)

The Magical Espresso Machine is a sweet, dual-timeline, intergenerational love story (with a fantasy twist). Beginning in Northern Italy pre-World War I, the story continues generations later in the historic town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Follow two star-crossed teenagers, Generosa and Caesar, who were meant to be together forever. Yet the tragedy of war pulls them apart.

As children, Generosa and Caesar form an unbreakable bond. Their deep love for each other blooms while growing up in their small rural farming towns of Cento and Renazzo, Italy. In a pivotal scene, they pose for a photographer by a café counter when lightning strikes and the large shiny espresso machine behind them glows a mysterious blue.

The author shows readers from the perspective of local farmers in Northern Italy how World War I ripped the young men from their families and forced them into the horrors of World War I, its brutality and sorrow..

Generosa and Caesar's family wait, anxiously, hopeful, but without any news, for Caesar and his friends to return to Cento. Meanwhile, Grnerosa has no desire for any other love and opens a café, much like the one where, as teenagers, they professed their love during a lightning storm with the magical espresso machine as a backdrop.

Decades later, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Marie, a young descendant of Generosa, marries the love of her life, and after the birth of their child, Jacelyn, life is perfect...until it isn't, leaving a wake of grief. Marie has the same passion as her Great-Aunt Generosa and opens a café to fill the emptiness and follow her dream.

Experience the highly emotional interwoven stories of family, love, and loss, and how young Jacelyn, with her childish innocence, can link the past to the present.

In addition to the historical context, the author introduces readers to elementary Italian words and phrases with their English translations.