Book Blurb:
1923
Maria Vittoria is embroidering a sheet for her dowry trunk.
Her father has gone to find her a husband. He’s taken his mule, a photograph and a pack of food: home-made sopressa sausage, cold polenta, a little flask of wine – no need to take water – the world is full of water.
There are no eligible men in this valley or the next one, and her father will not let her marry just anyone, and now, despite Maria’s years, she is still healthy. Her betrothed will see all that. He’ll be looking for a woman who can do the work.
Maria can do the work. Everyone in the contrà says that.
And the Lord knows Maria will need to be able to work. Fascism blooms as crops ripen, the state craves babies just as the babies cry for food. Maria faces a stony path, but one she will surely climb to the summit.
In this sumptuous and elegant novel you will taste the bigoli co l’arna, touch the mulberry leaves cut finer than organdie, and feel the strain of one woman attempting to keep her family safe in the most dangerous of times.
The Madonna Of The Mountain was published by Faber & Faber on the 27th March in ebook and hardback. You can purchase your copy here.
My Review:
The Madonna Of The Mountains is a saga like story following Maria and her family from 1923 through to after the second world war. It is a beautifully told story about love in later life, for that time anyway. I really felt for Maria who fears she will be ‘left on the shelf’ at 25! It was very poignant to read about her weighing up her good points, trying to convince herself that she has a lot to give her future husband. Her helplessness in this situation is heartbreaking, particularly as she has no say in what happens.
Maria was my favourite character and I loved reading about the journey she goes through throughout the novel. She has to grow up quickly in a short amount of time and her ability to adapt and make do was very admirable. Her strength and determination to make her marriage work and keep her family safe was beautiful to read about and I admired her courage.
The book is set in an interesting period of Italian history which was fascinating to read about. I love learning about new periods of history and as I didn’t know much about this period I found it very interesting. The affect of the rise of fascism in everyday life and the war years were the most fascinating part of the book for me. I’ve always been amazed by how quickly it took off in Italy and how easily people followed it. The Mulberry farming and the keeping of silkworms was great to read about too as again I hadn’t read much about it before.
As you might expect in a book set in Italy, food is mentioned and I enjoyed reading the sometimes mouth watering descriptions. The author has included a few recipes in the back of the book for some of the food mentioned and I will definitely be trying some of them in the near future.
The book has a bit of a slow start as there isn’t a lot of action and a lot about Maria’s thoughts or musings. The author’s writing style is a little different to what I’m used to and took me a little bit to get used to but it soon gets interesting so I would urge everyone to continue as it does pick up.
If you like family sagas or Italian history you will enjoy this book. Thank you to Joanna Lee and Faber and Faber publishers for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.
About The Author:
Over The Rainbow Blog 