Westburn Blues — Jim Riley

Dante Rinaldi is born to Italian immigrants in the West of Scotland. Stranded by World War Two in Italy during a summer with his grandfather, Dante grows roots in his family's rural homeland and, as a young adult, identifies with a band of mountain partisans fighting the fascists. Young love delayed and the Rinaldis' struggles in post-war Scotland carry Dante into the life of Chris McCoull: a neglected adolescent who finds his calling and romance while working for a Greek-owned shipping line. Carefully researched and historically detailed, Westburn Blues is a rendering of the Scottish-Italian experience and filled with a cast of colorful characters, from sympathetic to truly evil.