Book excerpt: Mia is a young woman who leaves her small hometown in Umbria, Italy, to start a new life in New York. Day by day, through backbreaking work shifts and endless passion, she carves her space within the art world of the Big Apple. Among the sparkling mundanity, the drugs, the pleasures of food and the hypocrisy of her new world, Mia manages to nourish genuine friendships, find true love and build a family. But not all dreams are meant to last forever, and Mia will soon be faced with the most unbearable pain a mother can experience, and will have to appeal to her inner strength to put her life back on track. The narrative voice of this Simple Story is Angela, Mia’s daughter. In a humorous, innocent but real tone, she will take you into her and her mother’s life, and touch the most sensitive cords of your soul. Anne Lamunière grew up in Geneva, but soon moved to Italy then to New York as fast as she could. Set design being her first passion, she worked in the restaurant business for years. Having now settled back in her home country for the past fifteen years, her career as a specialist in Post War and Contemporary Art has taught her that everything is possible if you climb on the right trains, and that anyone can have multiple new exciting beginnings in life. After a Master’s degree in Political Science and a first job at McDonald’s, Maria Antonietta Bonacci discovered the world of the media and developed a passion for storytelling. An international career in Marketing and Communication followed in the field of high jewelry and finance with the certainty that one day she’d write a short story that would hopefully mean something to someone out there. Her motto: dreams come true if you believe in them and if you have precious friends to help you make them happen.