The Lost American Dream - Paperback

by Lawrence Panasci (Author)

What does it mean to belong in a country built on both opportunity and exclusion? The Lost American Dream confronts this question with heart, humour, and unflinching insight.

From the working-class streets of 1950s Rome, New York, to the ivy-covered halls of Georgetown University, this sweeping novel follows one young Italian-American man's search for identity and purpose in an America divided by class, culture, and war. As the Vietnam draft looms, Enrico pivots from mathematics to medicine, a decision that propels him into the elite world of American academia and into the orbit of Athena, a brilliant physician with roots in Boston's old-money aristocracy. Their lives intertwine against a backdrop of privilege and restlessness, where Enrico must reconcile his humble beginnings with the glittering but hollow circles he now inhabits.

With a clear-eyed view of America's contradictions, this deeply personal novel explores love, ambition, and the eternal questions of identity and purpose. Inspired by true events, The Lost American Dream is a sweeping and soulful coming-of-age tale steeped in cultural heritage and quiet revelation.