Sofia

"WHY DO WE EXIST... WHY DO WE STRIVE TO SURVIVE... IF NOT TO HELP EACH OTHER." Joe is the successful screenwriter behind a series of blockbuster movies, but his personal life is in shambles. He hasnt had a date in over eighteen years, and his relationship with the daughter he raised by himself has gone off the rails. Once a sweet and affectionate child, Sofias personality changed dramatically in her early teens, and her increasingly explosive, irrational behavior has wreaked havoc on Joes family back home in the Bronx. During a visit with a specialist after experiencing neck pain, Joe meets a Kentucky-born beauty, Jennifer, who is a pediatric oncology nurse, and over lunch they hit it off. Joe soon learns how affable, charming, intelligent, and compassionate Jennifer is, and quickly moves to make room for her in his life. For the first time in decades, he can see the possibility of a real romantic relationship, but its not long before Sofias behavior begins to interfere with his one chance at love. As the relationships between the daughter, the nurse, and Joe intertwine, Joe discovers what it means to be a family, and he learns just how dark life can be for those whose families are torn apart by illness and loss. His grasp of whats really important shifts from the make-believe world of the movies to the everlasting hope that we can all make a positive difference for those fighting just to live. Ryan Chandler, a successful but apathetic student, drops out of university and is soon leading a rudderless existence. Living at home, working a dead-end part-time job, but deeply dissatisfied, he accepts a rare opportunity to pursue his own research project. Soon installed in the German city of Karlsruhe, Ryan throws himself into his project, studying aspects of the first-ever international scientific meeting and focussing on the contributions to that meeting made by one of the delegates, a man who ultimately becomes a famous Italian chemist. Aspects of his project gradually draw Ryan's interest toward Italian unification, the Risorgimento, and some of the charismatic characters involved in that struggle. But he is also attracted to a 160-year-old mystery, and it soon becomes clear that he is not the only one interested. Ryan has stumbled across something treacherous, with unknown depths. A dark violence begins to engulf Ryan's friends, his family, and himself. In Rome, hints appear as to the nature of that violence, which reveals itself in Sicily and follows him back to Karlsruhe. Sicilian Refuge weaves past and present together in a story of personal growth, loss, and retribution.