With Heart and Soul goes beyond the normal treatment of causes and consequences of immigration and focuses on the ways in which 'Old World' cultural traits were transformed and altered as immigrants encountered an urban, industrial (and, at times, hostile) new environment.

Based on forty-eight in-depth interviews with first-generation Italian immigrants, the story Fanella tells is compelling and informative, not only for Italian-Canadian readers, but also those interested in more general ethnic or immigration studies. With Heart and Soul is a sensitive testament to those whose lives were defined by the social and cultural upheaval that is immigration.