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Synopsis
The international bestseller from Italy's foremost woman writer—now in paperback.
Library Journal
The heroine of this novel, Marianna, is a duchess in early 18th-century Sicily. She is deaf and dumb, but she wasn't born that way. As she turns 40, she realizes that she has been married (since she was 13) to the uncle who raped her when she was five years old. This traumatic revelation triggers her physical disabilities, compelling her to seek refuge in books and letters. Marianna decides to travel after her husband dies and even turns down an attractive marriage proposal in order to be independent for the first time in her life. Maraini's (e.g., Voices, Serpent's Tail, 1997) writing is elegant, and her graphic descriptions of the luxurious life of the aristocracy in sharp contrast to the squalor of the majority living in poverty are quite realistic. The Silent Duchess was made into a movie in 1996. Recommended for women's studies classes, readers interested in early Sicilian history, and wherever foreign authors are popular.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH