When We Were Strangers

From Booklist: "'Don't die with strangers,' Irma Vitale's mother tells her before she dies. But circumstances propel Irma out of her home in the tiny mountain village of Opi, located near Naples, and across the ocean to America. It's the 1880s, and Irma joins a flood of other immigrants looking for a better life. Resting her hopes on her needlework skills, she stops first in Cleveland, where she ends up making collars in a sweatshop. Next stop is Chicago, where she is hired as a dressmaker by Madame Helene. Irma also meets Signora D'Angelo, who runs a clinic, and this meeting helps send her west on the next part of her journey, in pursuit of a new dream."