The Jukebox Queen of Malta

UNCORRECTED PROOF. Softbound. CT author's highly acclaimed second novel. "With German and Italian bombs raining down their devastation on Malta, United States Army Corporal Rocco Raven is sent to join a small American liason team that has been assigned to the tiny island. Inexperienced, terrified, and yearning for his Brooklyn home, Rocco settles in for the siege and becomes romantically involved with Melita, a Maltese girl who repairs jukeboxes. Their complicated love affair plays out amid the hilarity of the eccentric patchwork army defending the island. Romance and war, music and bombs, the jukebox and the gun exist in arresting counterpoint-in a story that is by turns poignant, whimsical, troubled, and ultimately tragic." 368 pages. Critically revered, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo's DJ blurb exults: "I hope this year will offer us another novel as smart and hilarious and magical as Nicholas Rinaldi's 'The Jukebox Queen of Malta,' but I'm not holding my breath." GM3.