The Purgatory Tour follows the misadventures of a high school teacher as she accompanies an eclectic group of quirky colleagues and kids-will-be-kids on what may end up the Italian Concert Pilgrimage from Hell.

Maggie Burke—eldest of three, Catholic school educated, briefly engaged—has always prided herself on her ability to do the right thing, even when it doesn’t turn out right for her. As she navigates this first ever epic trip abroad as chaperone for her beloved “kiddles,” savoring the highs and offering up the comical lows for the souls in Purgatory, what she learns along the way will change the way she sees her world, her work, and most of all, herself.

Annmarie Fabbricatore's debut novel, Start at the Beginning, is a love letter to a time and place as much as a bildungsroman. It takes place largely in New York in the last years of the Second World War and the early postwar years.

It tells the story of Jack Costello, an affable easy going young man from Manhattan with his mother's Irish wit and his father's Italian temper who wants better for himself but fears disappointment and failure because of the insecurities that stem from his older brother's death and his demanding father's disapproval.

With no job or girl to tie him down, Jack enlists hoping to find a purpose or, at least, a way out from under his father's thumb. His return from war, however, leaves him more lost than ever. He must now either start at the beginning or succumb. With the help of his nurse Lucy, Jack discovers a world beyond his neighborhood and along the way discovers that most often, we are the biggest obstacle to our happiness. In the end, Jack must decide if he is secure enough to choose what, and more importantly, who he deserves.