Everybody Says It's Everything

Aliu revisits the humble Waterbury, Conn., setting of her novel Brass with this intelligent and hard-hitting story of Albanian adopted twins and their search for fulfillment. Drita and Pete are raised by Italian American couple Jackie and Dom, who adopted them shortly after they were born in 1972. Aliu builds narrative tension from the twins’ stark differences: growing up, Drita is straitlaced and docile compared to her stubborn troublemaker brother, Pete. As a teen, Drita dreams of becoming a nurse, while Pete, feeling unsettled over their lack of connection to their Albanian heritage, hangs out with a rough crowd. By 1996, he disappears. Three years later, not long after Drita returns to town from New York City, having completed nursing school, Pete’s former girlfriend, Shanda, a recovering heroin addict, shows up at the family’s door with their three-year-old son. As the novel unfolds, the reader gradually learns of the impetus behind Jackie’s maternal devotion. Aliu offers surprising insights and raises meaty questions about the meaning of family and unconditional love, and the story grows increasingly riveting as the reader learns about Pete’s connection to the Kosovo War and Jackie’s relationship to the twins’ mother. This one is tough to shake. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group. (Mar.)