Welcome to the Arcade

     Welcome to South Beach, Staten Island, a seaside neighborhood under the shadow of the Verrazzano Bridge and across the bay from Brooklyn’s Coney Island. It’s the early 1980s, and best friends Johnny Romano, Ralphie Molinaro, and Giulia Stringer are trying to figure out their lives. But that’s not always easy in South Beach, a place where memories are long, questions are discouraged, and the past washes up faster than the ocean’s waves. Welcome to the center of their universe, a run-down cement bunker filled with video games across the street from the boardwalk, where the three friends eat pizza, play pinball and share their secrets and dreams under the watchful eyes of Dinino, the mysterious owner of the arcade. Welcome to the people who change their lives, as Johnny, Ralphie and Giulia make their way from grade school through a decade full of wonder and confusion, 

love and heartbreak, betrayal and redemption, and, always, the power of friendship. And welcome to the one question in their hearts and minds that can’t be denied:

How do we solve the greatest mystery of all—growing up?

Welcome to the Arcade, the prequel to Two Nickels.