Behind closed doors: her father's house and other stories of Sicily

Behind Closed Doors portrays the habits and gestures, the words spoken and those left unsaid, of individuals caught between the traditions they respect and a desire to ease the social restrictions in their lives.

Messina's stories reveal a world in which women are shuttered in their houses, virtual servants to their families, and working men immigrate to the United States in fortune-seeking droves.

It is also a world of unstated privileges in which habits and implied commands perpetuate women's servitude.