The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories — Billy Lombardo

These moving yet unsentimental stories recount scenes in the coming of age of Petey Bellapani, from age eight to adolescence, growing up in the Italian Catholic ethnic neighborhood of Bridgeport in Chicago. The scenes form powerful images of urban youth: A fire burns Petey's home above a bakery. A neighborhood softball game takes an unexpected turn. And first love blooms next door and at the laundromat. The Logic of a Rose won the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, selected by Gladys Swan.