Contact: Abigail Davidson, Publicist, WinePress Publishing, 360-802-9758, abigail@winepressgroup.com

ENUMCLAW, Wash., March 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Her father tried to starve her. Her uncle viciously attacked her. Her siblings made her the scapegoat for their evil deeds. Her mother tried to strangle, stab, and starve her.

In her powerful new memoir, "The Sicilian Nobleman's Daughter," Florence Calderone Blake details a childhood riddled with abuse. The story begins one summer afternoon in 1895 Sicily, when 14-year-old Alfonsa elopes with the man of her dreams. Alfonsa's decision triggers a pattern of betrayal and abuse that reverberates for generations.

In the generation following Alfonsa's, Giovanni Calderone, son of the richest man in his Sicilian city, is knighted by Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III. Faced with choosing between fascism and the mafia, Calderone rejects both evils, and immigrates to America, where tyranny of a different kind surfaces.

Giovanni's wife, Maria, gives birth to six children. Florence, the sixth--and unwanted--child, grows up in an unheated, vermin-infested second-story flat in a New Jersey slum. She is the victim of unrelenting abuse, betrayal--even attempted murder--at the hands of her family members.

During the 1940s, no social services existed for abused children. So Calderone Blake did not run away from home. Nor did she turn to alcohol and drugs. Instead, God intervened and reassured her of her worth in His eyes. Through the warmth and caring nature of seemingly random Christians who passed through her childhood, Calderone Blake learned that not all people are cruel, and that God truly is a loving Father.

For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview, please contact Abigail Davidson by phone at 360-802-9758, by email at abigail@winepressgroup.com, or by fax at 360-802-9992. To purchase a copy of this book visit www.winepressbooks.com or call 877-421-7323.