Review: Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

A gritty story of a woman learning to survive in 20th century Gangland New York

In early 20th-century Sicily, noblewoman Mimi Inglese, a talented painter, dreams of escaping the rigid expectations of her class by gaining admission to the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her ambitions are shattered. With the Sicilian nobility in decline, she and her family leave for New York City in search of a fresh start.

Instead of opportunity, Mimi is pulled into the dark underbelly of city life and her father’s money laundering scheme. When he is sent to prison, desperation forces her to put her artistic talent to a new use—counterfeiting $5 bills to keep her family from starvation and, perhaps, to one day reclaim her dream of painting. But as Gangland violence escalates and tragedy strikes, Mimi must summon the courage to flee before she is trapped forever in a life she never wanted. From Sicily’s sun-bleached shores to the crowded streets of immigrant New York, Seeds of the Pomegranate is a story of courage, art, and the women who refused to disappear.

My Review

Our protagonist, Mimi, was a good artist and expected to be admitted to the Academy. But when she came down with Tuberculosis, her grand expectations fled along with her health. Paint fumes were fatal. And so she experienced the first major disappointment in her life. For poor Mimi, things never got better. But her father had big plans involving moving the family from Palermo to America, and the family reluctantly said goodbye to the old country and moved to New York. How was Mimi to know that her father’s patron was a racketeer, and all his money was fraudulant? How was she to know that her talent had already attracted attention, and this whole move was driven by her potential to counterfeit money? As a good Italian girl, she did what her father said. And she was also driven by pride in her work. She knew she could produce a better product than the inferior $5 bills the gang was passing. However, her first introduction to the New York underworld was not very auspicious:

CLUTCH’S SALOON WAS ON Prince Street. After the pretty row houses with the manicured gardens on Doctors Row, I expected Prince Street to be the home of, well, princely, or at least well-appointed buildings. But the buildings were run down, with broken windows and crumbling masonry. Children in rags ran up and down the street, shoeless, their faces smudged with dirt.
Pappa pointed to the shimmery ooze of sludge that ran along the curb. “Pick up your skirts.”
We looked up and down the street until he pointed to a storefront with a sign with Saloon above the door. “That must be it.”

It didn’t take long for Mimi to become disillusioned with her father and their sponsor back home, especially when her Pappa was arrested and sent to prison for five years. Desperate to pay the bills, she clandestinely joined forces with the accomplished Stella, an independent operator—for lack of a better word. Stella took Mimi under her wing and they created their own private counterfeiting business. They printed many thousands of dollars and Mimi yearned to take it and run away from home. But loyalty to her undeserving family kept her from leaving. And then it was too late. This is not a happy story, and lessons were not learned in the end. Nobody was redeemed. I suppose that’s what the underworld is all about. We certainly see the seamy side of early 20^th century gangland.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mZJdkD

Meet Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

Suzanne Uttaro Samuels writes about women who defy expectations and the secrets that shape families across generations.

Her debut novel, Seeds of the Pomegranate (Sibylline Press, 2025), follows a young Sicilian noblewoman whose search for freedom and art leads her into the hidden world of counterfeiters in early twentieth-century New York.

A former law professor turned novelist, Suzanne now lives in a lakeside cottage in the Adirondack Mountains with her husband, dog, and two cats. When she’s not writing, she’s exploring old family stories, local history, and the way memory lingers in the places we call home.