Louisa Emelino's lyrical and life-affirming first novel, "The Black Madonna," was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm by reviewers, from People magazine, who called it "an Italian version of The Joy Luck Club, " to Publishers Weekly, who hailed it as "zesty, " to bestselling author Fay Weldon: "Wise, witty, and warm. . ." "The Black Madonna" transports readers to a world centered around the bustling corner of Spring and Thompson streets in New York City's Little Italy, where Teresa, Magdelena, and Antoinette form a God-fearing, vibrant, and dark-souled trio of mothers whose lives are forever transformed by the power of the Black Madonna, the most powerful of Catholic icons.