Published as a trade paperback for the first time, with a new introduction by the acclaimed playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) and the one-act on which The Rose Tattoo was based.
The Rose Tattoo is larger than life―a fable, a Greek tragedy, a comedy, a melodrama―it is a love letter from Tennessee Williams to anyone who has ever been in love or ever will be. Professional widow and dressmaker Serafina delle Rosa has withdrawn from the world, locking away her heart and her sixteen-year-old daughter Rosa. Then one day a man with the sexy body of her late Sicilian husband and the face of a village idiot, Mangiacavallo (Italian for “eat a horse”), stumbles into her life and clumsily unlocks Serafina's fiery anger, sense of betrayal, pride, wit, passion, and eventually her capacious love.