Paper Fish is a 1980 novel by Antoinette "Tina" De Rosa (1944–2007), published initially by Wine Press and re-published by The Feminist Press in 1996. The novel is set in Little Italy, the Italian community around Taylor Street, in the Near West Side, during the 1940s and the 1950s. Connie Lauerman of the Chicago Tribune described Paper Fish as an "autobiographical novel". The book's main character is Carmolina BellaCasa and the book is centered on her family. The primary relationship in the novel is between the main character and Doria, her grandmother. Other characters include Carmolina's father and mother and her ill older sister. Story The book's chapters consist of the Prelude, Parts I-VI, and an Epilogue. Mary Jo Bona, author of "Broken Images, Broken Lives: Carmolina's Journey in Tina De Rosa's Paper Fish," described the novel as having an "unconventional" structure and a circular form. The prelude is narrated in the first-person by Carmolina, who is unborn at this point. After the prelude the story uses the third-person narrative form. Part I, "The Memory," describes the childhood memories of Doria and the lives of Carmolina's parents. Part II, "Summer 1949 – Late July," chronicles the efforts of residents of Carmolina's neighborhood in searching for her, since she has run away from home. A meeting in the kitchen of the BellaCasa house occurs at the end of the scene. Bona wrote that Doria "dominates" the kitchen scene. Part III, "The Family," chronicles Doria's life when she had been recently married. It also has a section about the marriage of Carmolina's parents. The destruction of the BellaCasa family residence by a fire takes place in this chapter. Part IV, "Summer 1949 – Early June" describes Doriana's illness, the lives of the residents of Carmolina's neighborhood, and Carmolina's observations of area gypsies. In this chapter the family considers institutionalizing Doriana. Fearing that if the family sends Doriana away, she may be sent away too, Carmolina makes herself become ill to end the family meeting. Carmolina decides to run away from home, and in Part V, "Summer 1949 – Late July," she goes on a streetcar and goes to a neighborhood described by Bona as "unfriendly to ethnics." The chapter includes Carmolina's recollections of conversations between herself and her grandmother. Bona wrote that the recollections "clarify her understanding of herself and Doriana's illness." Doriana has a high fever in this chapter; Bona wrote