Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

    Broken Madonna    By Anna Lucia   SUMMARY: Elena Ferrante meets Bernadette of Lourdes in a story of love, loss and belonging, spanning post-WW2 Italy through to 90’s England   Italy 1949 At an orphanage in the poverty-stricken Apennine Mountains, 15-year-old Adelina has only one friend - enigmatic, fragile Elisabetta, 11. When Elisabetta claims to see the Madonna by the river, Adelina has doubts. But after Elisabetta appears to heal a traumatised young soldier, Giulio, who starts to walk again without his stick, crowds flock to witness the mystery of Elisabetta’s miracles. Adelina can no longer contain her misgivings and seeks out the scheming priest, Padre Bosco. The secrets of the past begin to unravel, and Adelina, Elisabetta and Giulio each have to confront who or what to believe. Soon they face a terrible reckoning which will cause deep ripples in all their lives, reaching across the years to 1990s England.   MY REVIE...

    A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio ( translated by Anne Goldstein)   SUMMARY: Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving. Without warning or explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self.     MY REVIEW: This is a complex portrait of Italy that you do not see in the guidebooks. It is a powerful story and digs deep into the meaning...