Lavishly illustrated in full color, the book is based on Amore's multimedia exhibition Lifeline: filo della vita, which traveled with great acclaim from the Ellis Island Museum to Boston, Rome, and Naples. Woven throughout are numerous interviews?in both English and Italian, as are many other documents?and historic photographs from the Ellis Island archives. Also included are original essays by Pellegrino D?Acierno, Fred Gardaph?, Jennifer Guglielmo, Edvige Giunta, Flavia Rando, Joseph Sciorra, and Robert Viscusi?who take Amore's art as a starting point for illuminating explorations of the immigrant experience?from the aesthetics of cultural memory and the persistence of ethnic identity to issues of gender, race, and generational change in Italian-American history and life. The book includes an Italian translation of the full text.