ENFIELD –  Author/publisher Linda Cardillo is re-releasing her 2010 book, “Across the Table” a classic American story.

Cardillo’s original publisher Harlequin dissolved a few years ago and was bought out by HarperCollins Publishers. Many of the books that were published in the early years didn’t get picked up to be reprinted. Because of this, the book went out of print in 2016. Cardillo felt this book needed to be available again, she was able to get the rights back from Harlequin and reissued the book.

For those reading this book for the first time, Cardillo said the book today serves the same purpose as when she released it, “The same thing I was looking to do 10 years ago, which was to present the story of a multi-generational family that experiences the upheaval of the 20th century and flourishes.”

“Across the Table” is told from the point of view of three Sicily women. Rose Dante, the matriarch, her daughter Toni and Toni’s daughter Vanessa.

As they deal with divorce, infidelity, sexuality and the Vietnam War while trying to hold their families together in the face of seismic change in the 20th century of America.

“Each successor generation tries to hold on to what she perceives as the really good things that come from being a part of this large family, but she is also trying to make a path for herself that defines herself separate from her family,” Cardillo responded.

Many of the scenes in the book take place at Thanksgiving as the family gathers at Paradiso, Rose’s restaurant on Boston’s Salem Street.

Cardillo was an avid reader growing up and always wanted to be a writer. She majored in American Literature at Tufts University and wrote short stories for their student publication. A couple of years after graduating, Cardillo was an editor at Houghton Mifflin in their college textbook division. It was there she took a course ran by the Book Builders of Boston.

“Houghton Mifflin sent all of its new editorial assistants to the Book Builders course,” Cardillo replied. “I learned everything about making a book, including going up to Maine to watch a paper mill turn trees into paper that would eventually be printed.”

As she continued, “It was at a time when books were set in hot metal type. I went and saw a typesetter and understood how type got laid. Literally the physicality of making a book. All of it was part of my love for books.”

Cardillo went on to Harvard Business school where she earned an MBA. She returned to publishing as the circulation manager at Inc. Magazine during its launch. Then worked for the Conference Board writing business topics. Even though she was writing, Cardillo said she wasn't writing what she had dreamed of writing as a young girl.

Once her husband received an offer to work in Germany, Cardillo took a leave of absence, packed up their children and moved. In Germany, she freelanced for her old company writing one more business book. Then decided this was her time to start writing a novel. While writing her first novel, Cardillo was raising her children and working full time. By the time she returned to the States, Cardillo finished the novel and sought an agent to represent her. After five years, she found an agent, but it took a year for her agent to find a publishing company to print her book. Cardillo was rejected by 25 companies before her agent found a publisher. After 17 years, her first novel, “Dancing on Sunday Afternoons” was published in 2007.

“Across the Table” was initially a novel completely based on food. In addition to being a writer, Cardillo aspired to open a restaurant. She had a catering business, but never opened a restaurant.

“I thought, well, maybe here’s my opportunity to finally open a restaurant in my imagination by writing a book about a restaurant,” said Cardillo. “That was the first idea, but the idea to set it as a family saga over several generations came from my experience of growing up in a large extended Italian-American family and stories that I heard around the table listening to my aunts.”

She added, “Ultimately, the book became a way to honor my mother’s generation. They were the first-generation Americans born here. Their parents had been immigrants and they very much wanted to be Americans and to be perceived as Americans. I wanted to talk about that journey. It's a classic American story. It just doesn’t apply to Italian Americans.”

When “Across the Table” was released in 2010, families of other ethnicities told Cardillo they resonated with the book; reminding them of their own family’s story.

“I was really gratified that it wasn't a narrow focus,” Cardillo concluded. “Even though I was writing very particularly about an Italian-American family, a lot of those experiences were universal and that's certainly the kind of response that I heard from readers when they read the book.”

Cardillo resides in Longmeadow and is currently working on a book called, “A Place of Refugee,” the fourth book in her First Light series, as well as beginning the research for another work of historical fiction.

“Across the Table” is available at all online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Apple, Kobo, etc. It can be ordered from local bookstores especially at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley.