The Streetcar to Life

A stirring middle grade novel about survival, identity, and the loving kindness of others. Set in 1943 Rome, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy, his selfless mother, and group of strangers outsmart the Germans through wit and grace in this story reliving the last Nazi roundup of Rome.

It's October 16, 1943, in the Rome ghetto Emanuele hides on a tram and begins a journey that will take him, stop after stop, to the end of the line, looking for his mother, who's been taken by the Nazis. He tells the conductor that he is Jewish and asks to be protected because the Germans are looking for him. The tram driver and then others after him will help Emanuele stay alive and safe for three days until he can find his father.

The author, Tea Ranno, tells the moving story of one of the last surviving witnesses of the Nazi roundup of Rome, Emanuele Di Porto.

Excerpts from the introduction:

My name is Emanuele Di Porto and I am ninety-one years old. On the morning of October 16th, 1943, when the Germans came to the ghetto to carry out a raid, my mother was taken and put on a truck. I ran into the street to save her, but instead she saved me. I have told my story for more than seventy years, but it has only recently gained recognition; many people now recognize me on the street and call me "the tram’s kid". But I have never been a kid, because at that time there was utter poverty, and everyone had to hurry to grow up and help their family. I have never been a kid, but I will never be old, because in my heart, time has stopped. My story is captured in this book, with some parts being completely true, and others embellished by Tea to bring the past to life.

Tea Ranno was born in Melilli, in the province of Syracuse, in 1963, and has lived in Rome since 1995. She has a degree in law and deals with law and literature. She has published for and/or the novels Cenere (2006, finalist for the Calvino and Berto awards, winner of the Chianti award) and In una lingua che non so più dire (2007). In 2012, Mondadori released La sposa vermiglia and in 2014, again for Mondadori, Viola Fòscari. In 2018 for Frassinelli she released Sentimi and in 2019 for Mondadori L'amurusanza.

Carol Lynch Williams, who grew up in Florida and now lives in Utah, is an award-winning novelist with five daughters of her own. She has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College. She won the prestigious PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship for her novel Glimpse and was nominated for the PEN for her book The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson. The Chosen One was named one of the ALA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Best Books for Young Adult Readers.

Tea Ranno was born in Melilli, in the province of Syracuse, in 1963, and has lived in Rome since 1995. She has a degree in law and deals with law and literature. She has published for and/or the novels Cenere (2006, finalist for the Calvino and Berto awards, winner of the Chianti award) and In una lingua che non so più dire (2007). In 2012, Mondadori released La sposa vermiglia and in 2014, again for Mondadori, Viola Fòscari. In 2018 for Frassinelli she released Sentimi and in 2019 for Mondadori L'amurusanza.