Ellis

The voice of thensisland that cradled millio of dreams Sara Belancini Aneta Lukianska

translated by

Angus Yuen-Killick

The American Dream . . . a distant mirage across an entire ocean. Long, uncertain days at sea lay between millions of hopeful immigrants and New York, where Ellis Island still stands in the harbor today.

From the late nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth, this small man-made island served as the principal gateway to the United States for Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, and other areas including the Caribbean—a gateway that was anything but guaranteed. Within its cold, imposing walls, millions of immigrants took their first hopeful steps, united by a single dream: to leave behind lives of poverty and despair.

Today, Ellis Island is a museum, bearing witness to these human stories. The echoes of many languages and countless voices still resonate there, reminding us of the courage, sacrifice, and hope that helped shape a nation.

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For my husband, who always helps me cross the darkest oceans

-Sara For my mother, without you, I wouldn’t be here believing I could choose art over certainty.

-Aneta

j Ellis: The Voice of the Island That Cradled Millions of Dreams Copyright © 2026 Edizioni Lapis • Published by arrangement with Majestic Agenzia Letteraria Translation rights arranged through Syllabes Agency, France Illustrations © 2026 Aneta Lukianska Originally published in 2026 in Italian by Edizioni Lapis, Rome, Italy English edition published in 2027 by Red Comet Press, LLC, Brooklyn, NY English Translation copyright © 2027 Angus Yuen-Killick All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2026948245 ISBN (HB): 978-1-63655-228-6 ISBN (EBOOK): 978-1-63655-229-3 27 28 29 30 TLF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Manufactured in China Red Comet Press is distributed by ABRAMS, New York

RedCometPress.com

Sara Belancini Aneta Lukianska

The voice of thesisland that cradled million of dreams

translated by Angus Yuen-Killick

c c

red comet press brooklyn •

They boarded the ship, hope neatly folded in their suitcases along with a few other things.

They left the end of a ball of yarn in the hands of those staying behind, as if they weren’t truly leaving.

As they drifted away, the thread unspooled, until it lay like a castaway line upon the water.

They bade farewell with “Until we meet again.”

What lay ahead, they could not know.

They entrusted themselves to fate, playing an uneven game against fortune, that relentless deceiver.

I saw them arrive. Every one of them. A wondrous tangle of beautiful languages.

Faces scorched by the sun, eyes black as coal, skin the color of milky coffee, and irises green as the distant hills.

They came down from the ships like ants in a line. Lost, dirty, exhausted— their pockets full of nothing but dreams.

They had followed a star after being beaten down by poverty.

They wanted more, searching for purpose. And bread to place on the table.

They wore their threadbare clothes and their dignity.

Crooked smiles, sometimes hollow, concealed their uncertainty.

I welcomed the orphans from lands unknown to me. I was their caretaker, their nanny, their wet nurse—their first embrace on solid ground after weeks at sea.

I held them in my belly for a while before letting them go.

I know I didn’t seem kind. A visit to this old aunt was a necessity, never a choice.

They would have preferred to pass me by. But before they could brush against gold, they first had to touch the cold cement.

I remember the children, curious yet timid. I met Alfredo, Peter, Alexeij, Bessie, Pablo. Countless names. Countless stories.

They arrived with mothers and siblings. The fathers had already been walking the streets for some years, building new lives.

I had nothing sweet to offer them, only doctors ready to examine and mark their backs with chalk.

One letter. Two letters. That was all it took to send the weakest back home.

The mad, the old, the deformed had no place at fortune’s table.

Amid that constant stream of lost souls, I quietly cared for the sick children.

Months passed between the voyage’s end and their departure into tomorrow.

They learned a new language, learned to read, and slowly became a little more American and a little less like newcomers.

Everyone knows me. I live at the feet of a woman called Liberty, her arm raised toward the sky, a crown of promises upon her head.

I knew there might be something else beyond my door— or only a lonely life of poverty.

At more than 130 years old, I should have been buried long ago. I have breathed the sighs of twelve million desperate dreamers. I have met their eyes, listened to their heartbeats, and gathered their tears. Now I rest.

As I recall the past, I can still smell the mingled scents and feel the interwoven lives of the newcomers who laid the bricks of the city behind me.

I am the first island they walked upon. The first welcome, the first encouragement to keep going, to take a chance—for life is lived partly by courage and partly by divine grace.

There was always someone who, looking up from the ship, saw me first and sang the opening note of a chorus of joy.

Ask for me. Look for me. I am Ellis Island.

Five fast facts c 1

Ellis Island welcomed more than twelve million immigrants from 1892 to 1954.

c 2

The first immigrant processed was fifteen-yearold Annie Moore from County Cork, Ireland, on January 1, 1892.

c 3

The busiest day was April 17, 1907, with 11,747 people processed.

c 4

The average inspection process took three to seven hours, consisting of a medical exam and legal cross-examination.

c 5

Roughly ninety-eight percent of all arriving immigrants were successfully granted entry into the U.S. Sources: www.statueofliberty.org www.statueoflibertytour.com/blog/15-ellis-island-facts-most-travelers-dont-know/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWbHkHMKncI www.ducksters.com/history/us_1800s/ellis_island.php

The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Since the 1980s, the nonprofit Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Foundation has partnered with the National Park Service to restore and preserve the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The National Immigration Museum is housed inside restored immigration buildings and includes collections of photographs, heirlooms, interactive displays, and films.

The Records Discovery Center is a research facility where you can find out how you and your family might fit in America’s immigration story through ship manifests and expanded public research stations.

With the restoration and reopening of Ellis Island in 1990, the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Foundation has opened the Statue of Liberty Museum, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and the American Family Immigration History Center, which made Ellis Island passenger arrival records available online for the first time and has been expanded to include more than a hundred million historical records from ports of entry across the U.S. Discover more at statueofliberty.org.

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There is a place of dreams Where hope becomes reality And the start of a new beginning.

That place is an island-and its name is Ellis.

$19.99 US $26.99 CN £14.99 UK •

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ISBN 978-1-63655-228-6

51999

9 781636 552286 Cover Illustration © Aneta Lukianska • RedCometPress.com • Printed in China