The Patch Boys — Jay Parini

Fifteen-year-old Sammy di Cantini, resident of a mining region of Pennsylvania, is determined to rise above his class, falls disastrously in love with a Protestant, and visits his Mafia brother in New York where he becomes involved in impossible struggles.During the summer of 1925 in Pennsylvania anthracite country, fifteen-year-old Sammy di Cantina, the son of poor Italian immigrants determined to rise above his class, comes to understand a good deal about life