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Title details for The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida - Available

The Madonna of the Mountains

A Novel

by Elise Valmorbida
Cecilia Gragnani
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
“A riveting adventure for the soul . . . just the kind of evocative historical fiction I love.”—Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge and Water for Elephants
An epic, inspiring novel about one woman’s survival in the hardscrabble Italian countryside and her determination to protect her family throughout the Second World War—by any means possible
Maria Vittoria is twenty-five when her father brings home the man who will become her husband. It is 1923 in the austere Italian mountain village where her family has lived for generations, and the man she sees is tall and handsome and has survived the First World War without any noticeable scars. Taking just the linens she has sewn that make up her dowry and a statue of the Madonna that sits by her bedside, Maria leaves the only life she has ever known to begin a family. But her future will not be what she imagines.
The Madonna of the Mountains follows Maria over the next three decades, as she moves to the town where she and her husband become shopkeepers, through the birth of their five children, through the hardships and cruelties of the National Fascist Party Rule and the Second World War. Struggling with the cost of survival at a time when food is scarce and allegiances are questioned, Maria trusts no one and fears everyone—her Fascist cousin, the madwoman from her childhood, her watchful neighbors, the Nazis and the Partisans who show up hungry at her door. As Maria’s children grow up and her marriage endures its own hardships, she must hold her family together with resilience, love, and faith, until she makes a fateful decision that will change the course of all their lives.
A sweeping saga about womanhood, loyalty, war, religion, family, food, motherhood, and marriage, The Madonna of the Mountains is a poignant look at the span of one woman’s life as the rules change and her world becomes unrecognizable. In depicting the great cost of war and the ineluctable power of time on a life, Elise Valmorbida has created an unforgettable portrait of a woman navigating both the unforeseen and the inevitable.
Advance praise for Madonna of the Mountains
“The moral and ethical questions raised propel the story beyond the particulars into the universal.”—Kirkus Reviews
“It is a bewitching but entirely unsentimental portrait of one woman’s attempt to keep her family safe in turbulent times.”—The Times (UK), Book of the Month
“A solid choice for readers who appreciate layered family sagas.”—Library Journal

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 12, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525528517
      • File size: 354856 KB
      • Duration: 12:19:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 16, 2018
      For her fiction debut, Valmorbida (author of the nonfiction collection The Book of Happy Endings) crafts a convincing if familiar portrait of an Italian woman’s struggle to ensure her family’s survival. Maria Vittoria’s story begins in 1923 in the Veneto countryside. At 25, she prays for a husband; her only previous romantic experience is a cousin’s attempt to kiss her. When she weds, Maria experiences a painful wedding night with husband Achille, who turns abusive. Despite marital difficulties, political repression, and wartime tribulations, Maria and Achille build a thriving grocery and growing family—and then Achille is arrested, leaving Maria to manage business and household. Her cousin, now in the militia, helps her—for a price. Her five children also help, but hard times reduce Maria to hunting lizards for food and stealing money. Fascists, partisans, Nazis, and Americans pass through while Maria prays and dreams about emigration. Valmorbida tracks the domestic power shift over a quarter-century from Achille to Maria and from one generation to the next. Details add authenticity: a doll on the railroad tracks; a madwoman in the wild; silkworms in the attic. Recipes for rolling tender gnocchi, using sardines to make polenta last, torturing enemies with oil or salt—they’re all part of life in this winning novel about on tradition, hardship, and resolve.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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