BookBrowse has a new look! Learn more about the update here.

Donna Freitas Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Donna Freitas
Photo: Allen Murabayashi

Donna Freitas

Donna Freitas Biography

Donna Frietas is a Brooklyn-based author of fiction and nonfiction, as well as memoir and novels for young adults and middle grade readers. Her first novel for adults, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano was released in April 2021. She is also a professor and researcher on topics related to sex on campus, Title IX, and sexual assault, as well as social media and young adults. She has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, and many other radio and news programs to talk about her work, and her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times, among other places. She has been a professor at Boston University and in Hofstra University's Honors College, and is currently on faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University's MFA in Creative Writing.

Donna Freitas's website

This bio was last updated on 03/12/2021. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

An essay by Donna Frietas in which she discusses her first novel, The Possibilities of Sainthood.

Italians never tell a story in a straight line. It’s because they like to talk so much. Digressions are the hallmark—Wait, you’re telling me I never told you about the time your grandmother’s brother Geista showed up in a long black limo to the wedding and your aunt thought he was in the Mafia? Before I can go any further I’ve gotta tell you that one… The longer the story, the more reason to keep sipping that glass of wine or cup of espresso and eating more of that yummy sfogliatelle. And hands, always big, dramatic gestures with the hands.

If you could see Antonia Lucia Labella talk—she’d be gesticulating wildly. Always.

Growing up, my favorite stories of all were the ones that my mother, Concetta Lucia, and my grandmother, Amalia, used to tell about the two enormous fig trees behind the family’s Italian market—Goglia’s (it’s still open, in Bristol, RI)—where my mother spent her youth in the tiny apartment above the store. I never tired of her stories about how she got in trouble for plucking the biggest, juiciest figs for herself, and especially about how difficult it was to keep those trees alive during the harsh Rhode Island winters, when the whole ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Donna Freitas at BookBrowse
The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano jacket The Survival Kit jacket The Possibilities of Sainthood jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Donna Freitas but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Kate Atkinson

    Kate Atkinson

    Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her four bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became the BBC television series ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

    Try:
    Life After Life
    by Kate Atkinson

  • Brit Bennett

    Brit Bennett

    Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

    Try:
    The Mothers
    by Brit Bennett

We recommend 9 similar authors

View all 9 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Become a Member

Join BookBrowse today to start
discovering exceptional books!
Find Out More

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Briar Club
    The Briar Club
    by Kate Quinn
    Kate Quinn's novel The Briar Club opens with a murder on Thanksgiving Day, 1954. Police are on the ...
  • Book Jacket: Bury Your Gays
    Bury Your Gays
    by Chuck Tingle
    Chuck Tingle, for those who don't know, is the pseudonym of an eccentric writer best known for his ...
  • Book Jacket: Blue Ruin
    Blue Ruin
    by Hari Kunzru
    Like Red Pill and White Tears, the first two novels in Hari Kunzru's loosely connected Three-...
  • Book Jacket: A Gentleman and a Thief
    A Gentleman and a Thief
    by Dean Jobb
    In the Roaring Twenties—an era known for its flash and glamour as well as its gangsters and ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The 1619 Project
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
An impactful expansion of groundbreaking journalism, The 1619 Project offers a revealing vision of America's past and present.
Book Jacket
Lady Tan's Circle of Women
by Lisa See
Lisa See's latest historical novel, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl
    by Bart Yates

    A saga spanning 12 significant days across nearly 100 years in the life of a single man.

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

L T C O of the B

and be entered to win..

Win This Book
Win Smothermoss

Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.

Enter

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.