In 1850 Trastevere, gifted architect Gabriel Tucci encounters an olive merchant’s daughter and for the first time finds beauty in something other than towers and spires. On the eve of Ferragosto, he learns her father has signed an undesirable marriage contract and the love-struck Gabriel and Anna Maria flee Trastevere for London. His reputation means nothing there, yet his dreams won’t die. When a rival architect betrays him and ruins his name, he is forced to seek work outside of London, leaving Anna Maria with their young children, aided only by a disgraced nun and a Jewish lady’s maid. Barely surviving, she is presented with a heartbreaking proposal, offering her the opportunity to redeem Gabriel’s name and return him to her. But at what price? 

Three generations later in present-day London, Luca Tucci practices Judaism, using Yiddish and Italian phrases interchangeably, yet his sister is entering a cloistered nunnery. As he says goodbye to his only remaining family, he submits a bid to design the music hall at St. Giuseppe’s in his ancestor’s name. Though someone else wants it more: a young widower set on fulfilling his wife’s dying wish. Only one architect can win the bid, but neither is prepared when a centuries-old mystery threatens to dispel everything they believed was true. It all starts when a stealthy art conservator unearths haunting artifacts inside the church’s sealed-up watching loft. 

In a multilayered narrative, crossing timelines and continents, The Lost Legacy of Gabriel Tucci is a testament to the endurance of love and the will to survive.

Rich with Italian culture and Jewish themes, the story will appeal to readers of 19th-century historical fiction with dual timelines.