^{_{—Best-selling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe}}

“David Ciminello has written a great big rollercoaster of a novel. . . . Read this book! Hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.”

^{_{—Author of The Sign for Home}}

“Ciminello is a master of delicious wordplay. His lusciously cinematic story is a veritable carnival ride culled from his family’s kitchen history. The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a tasty tale of love, sex, and the holy magic of homemade Italian cooking.”

^{_{—Best-selling author of The Good Left Undone}}

“The brilliant David Ciminello’s hilarious and moving novel The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a crazy Italian circus with a heart as big as Sicily. I loved Belladonna Marie Donato and her merry band of misfits, outcasts who become chosen family as she makes peace with her family of origin. A glorious Italian American feast! Bravo David!”

^{_{—Author of Thrust}}

“Open your mouth and ready your heart because Belladonna Marie from The Queen of Steeplechase Park is about to serve you some unforgettable tales of love and loss, with a side of meatballs. David Ciminello has reanimated Depression-era Coney Island with such vivid and dazzling detail that I wanted to laugh, cry, eat a hot dog, and go for a swim all at once. A phenomenal story of a burlesque queen searching for her lost baby in the glitz, ooze, and hum of sideshows from Brighton to Gravesend. I couldn’t put it down.”

^{_{—Author of The Alehouse at the End of the World}}

“David Ciminello is a writer with an ear for gritty urban rhythms, a love of wordplay, and a gift for making the nostalgic past relevant today. His prose is earthy and incantatory all at once. His novel is a delicious stew—an operatic fan letter to the real-life aunt who inspired the titular character, a paean to the Italian immigrant experience, a quest for a missing child, a family cookbook—and always a comedy heightened by its tragic elements. The Queen of Steeplechase Park crackles with the hyper- real comic book energy of a graphic novel, and the recipes are a primer on how to live your best life. Buon appetito! Mangiare bene! Delizioso!”

^{_{—Author of Bitteroot}}

“Meet Belladonna Marie, the force of nature plucked from the historical and culinary passions of David Ciminello. Set in depression-era Coney Island, the novel whips up a bevvy of queer, memorable eccentrics, served with a heaping side of sumptuous language. From Melanzana to Puttana, The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a whimsical, gastronomical delight.”