I Before E

By: Drew Banks

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Paperback | 11 March 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
382 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.16

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$24.19

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i before e, except by the sea,

where when drowning I may,

find padre. Padre!

The third novel in the Elba trilogy, I Before E tells the story of Paolo Viglietti, a young Italian-American immigrant whose desperate struggle to understand his father's drowning triggers a turbulent coming of age-one that ultimately leads him back to Italy to confront the family mysteries he's grappled with his entire life.

Set between 1986 and 2000, I Before E follows Paolo's journey from his suffocating childhood in Little Italy (New York City), to his teenage liberation in the West Village, to his college escape to UC Berkeley, and finally to his return to Italy and search for answers in Rome, Padua, and his hometown of Portoferraio, Elba.

Drew Banks's Elba Trilogy-Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba, and I Before E-is a multigenerational literary fiction series set between New York, Paris, and across Italy, and exploring themes of identity, exile, and chosen family. While these novels can be read independently, there are several characters and situations threaded through the trilogy that add nuance and texture to each story, especially given these characters and situations are conveyed through the lens of the novels' different protagonists.

This genre-blending trilogy will captivate readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ literature, coming-of-age journeys, historical fiction, family drama, romance, mysteries, European settings, and evocative "armchair travel" storytelling.

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