The Family Angel — Loretta Giacoletto

 A sequel and partial parallel to Chicago's Headmistress, The Family Angel is about the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, The Great Depression, and WWII, this historical novel stands alone as an Italian American saga. Follow the Americanization of the Baggio family through sixty years of romance, deception, crime, and redemption. From immigrant bootleggers and coalminers to proud winemakers and ambitious priests, only a few family members will encounter the chameleon-like Black Angel who shows up when least expected to offer advice or merely observe. After all, there's only so much one family angel can do to save troubled people from themselves.

Petty bootleggers Carlo Baggio and his brother Jake are enjoying the good life in 1925 Prohibition Chicago until Carlo enters into an arranged marriage with a bride from Italy and Jake gets run out of town for cheating on the boss's daughter. In the aftermath Carlo takes a bullet for Jake and is ready to cash in his chips until a black angel that Carlo dubs L'Angelo Nero convinces him otherwise--and more than one time. For the next fifty years the Baggio brothers and their families will experience hardship, tragedy, rewards, and the unwelcomed honor of Carlo's son becoming a priest.

Years later L'Angelo Nero visits Carlo's grandson Frank, the only survivor of a life-altering experience that prompts Frank to follow his uncle into the priesthood. Eventually, Frank winds up in Rome, training for the prestigious Vatican Diplomatic Corps. He encounters the angel again, along with a mysterious warning that leads Frank to choose between the diplomatic career he has coveted for years or sparing the life of a priest defying Catholic tradition.