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| That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story | 
 enlarge | Author: Marlena De Blasi
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $14.03
You Save: $9.97 (42%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (7 reviews)
Sales Rank: 20399
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345497651
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.5804929092
EAN: 9780345497659
ASIN: 0345497651
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"From de Blasi (The Lady in the Palazzo, 2007, etc.), a fragrant tale of life and love in the mountains of Sicily.Shortly after the Venetian interlude she luxuriously captured in A Thousand Days in Venice (2002), the author accepted an assignment to write a magazine article on the interior regions of Sicily. Like many other journalists, she was met by silence from the wary Sicilians. She was about to retire to the mainland when she stumbled upon Villa Donnafugata, whose romantic turrets, towers, balconies and chromatically tiled roof were surrounded by gardens, fields, piazzas and hills. The black-draped, oldish women in residence tended to their various labors, chanted, laughed and prayed. The sun was hot, the smell of herbs suffused the air. Was this a fever dream? de Blasi wondered. No, but it was surely a place from another time, and how it emerged out of feudalism through an act of moral modernity was a story unfurled to the author by the villa?s mistress, Tosca. The tale, which comprises most of the book, is a marvel. As a child of nine or ten, Tosca was sent by her horse-breeder father to live with a Sicilian prince, Leo, who ?had a stallion that Tosca?s father wanted more than his daughter.? Early rebellion gave way to affection, then love. Together, in the years following World War II, the prince and his ward brought education, health care and a shared sense of purpose to the village around their manor. Rapture and grief came in measured doses, but ultimately Leo was run out of town for his affront to the ?centuries?-old system of hierarchy that kept the wealthy in comfort and the poor in misery.? Even in 1995, when de Blasi first visited Donnafugata, the old ways abided, like the shawl Tosca wore at night, still permeated with the scent of her beloved. Swift, sinuous, deep and brimming with cultural artifacts."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Strangers seldom wander into the mountainous wild at Sicily?s heart. The locals, having resisted repeated waves of invaders, maintain their own traditions in defiance of the outside world. So when de Blasi and her Venetian husband trek into Sicily?s core in search of background for a travel guide, they discover a world much removed from modern life. Persevering in what seems a fruitless search, they finally stumble upon the Villa Donnafugata, an old wreck of a castle presided over by an imperious woman called Tosca. The villa has become a refuge for widows from the region. It also houses a birthing clinic, vital to the mountains? isolated women. The residents eat well and heartily, the leftovers distributed to the local town?s poor. De Blasi uncovers Tosca?s past, an extraordinary tale of passion and love stretching over decades of the twentieth century. Admirers of this author will relish her latest volume."
- BOOKLIST
?At villa Donnafugata, long ago is never very far away,? writes bestselling author Marlena de Blasi of the magnificent if somewhat ruined castle in the mountains of Sicily that she finds, accidentally, one summer while traveling with her husband, Fernando. There de Blasi is befriended by Tosca, the patroness of the villa, an elegant and beautiful woman-of-a-certain-age who recounts her lifelong love story with the last prince of Sicily descended from the French nobles of Anjou.
Sicily is a land of contrasts: grandeur and poverty, beauty and sufferance, illusion and candor. In a luminous and tantalizing voice, That Summer in Sicily re-creates Tosca?s life, from her impoverished childhood to her fairy-tale adoption and initiation into the glittering life of the prince?s palace, to the dawning and recognition of mutual love. But when Prince Leo attempts to better the lives of his peasants, his defiance of the local Mafia?s grim will to maintain the historical imbalance between the haves and the have-nots costs him dearly.
The present-day narrative finds Tosca sharing her considerable inherited wealth with a harmonious society composed of many of the women?now widowed?who once worked the prince?s land alongside their husbands. How the Sicilian widows go about their tasks, care for one another, and celebrate the rituals of a humble, well-lived life is the heart of this book.
Showcasing the same writerly gifts that made bestsellers of A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany, That Summer in Sicily, and de Blasi?s marvelous storytelling, remind us that in order to live a rich life, one must embrace both life?s sorrow and its beauty. Here is an epic drama that takes readers from Sicily?s remote mountains to chaotic post-war Palermo, from the intricacies of forbidden love to the havoc wreaked by Sicily?s eternally bewildering culture.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 This one disappointed me. September 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have devoured each of De Blasi's other books and I think about them often. She captivated me with her style of writing and her passion. This latest book just did not grab hold of me in the same way. It's written in lovely style but I just don't care about the ones written about as much as I have in the other offerings. I guess I like to hear about Marlena, her husband and their interactions with locals in each of the places they have lived.
 That Summer in Sicily September 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent story I had read it from the local library and purchased it for a friend's birthday. I also recommend author's other titles, A thousand Days in Venice and a Thousand Days in Tuscany. For anyone who loves Italy as much as I do, Both of my paternal grandparents were born there.
This is a really great writer with wonderful stories to tell. September 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Marlena De Blasi has had the most amazing life, and is a wonderful writer. As an Italophile I loved every word that she ever wrote. And this is the latest one that I have read. My head is spinning and I am planning another trip to Italy. Perhaps to Sicily. It is truly a fairy tale. You must read it!!!!!
 Good story, well-told July 10, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This author can write! Her descriptions of people, environments, food and relationship are first class.
Unlike the first three books that were memoirs of her travels and life with her husband, A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany, and The Lady in the Palazzo, this book is really Tosca Brazzi's story as told to Marlena.
De Blasi descriptions of simple, everyday things are strong, such as: Unskilled, unshy hands pounded scales on the piano." I could hear the music and see that person working the keys.
What an interesting story de Blasi tells because of her chance meeting with a woman, now in her mid 60s, while traveling with her husband, Italian born Fernando. Tosca, the nine-year-old daughter of a peasant under the last prince in Sicily, was given to the prince by her father in trade for a stallion. She was educated along with the prince's young children and as she grew, became their teacher. A priest who knew her in the beginning described her as having "splendid arrogance."
At 18, Tosca became the mistress of Leo, the prince, now 36. When Leo disappeared mysteriously because his work for the people went against the local mafia, Tosco became an heiress. She carries on his work of modernizing some of culture. Sicily is like a major character in the book and we learn about many aspects of life there.
The story today is of Tosca's role in helping women who are alone--many who come to the beautiful Villa Donnafugata (house of fleeing women) to live, and maybe to die.
If you love good writing that is descriptive to the finest detail, read this book. In the first chapter she describes the ceiling of the dining room in the Villa: "Fragment of frescoed gods and goddesses--plump flanked and rolling eyes--hurtle across the high crumbling walls, giving chase up onto the great vault of the ceiling."
The author has been a journalist, restaurant critic, and cookbook author. She took a trip to Italy, and there experienced a whirlwind love affair with a man and with Venice, inspiring her to write _A Thousand Days in Venice.
Armchair Interviews says: Not a memoir of de Blasi's life, but of Tosca's, however this is a good read you'll enjoy.
Something New from my Favorite Serial Memoirist July 4, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
That Summer in Sicily is the fourth Marlena de Blasi book I have read. When I picked up the first one, A Thousand Days in Venice, I didn't take to it right away. I am a Texan who writes exactly the way I speak, and I am irritated by flowery prose. However, I am also a sensualist, in love with taste, aroma, color, texture and sound. These elements--these things that define a particular place--come alive for me in these books.
Unlike her previous three memoirs, this story is not really about American Marlena and her Venetian husband. It is an almost unbelievable love story, a story about what it means to be Sicilian. As with most other adventures in her life, this one began with a writing assignment. Marlena was asked by a scholarly magazine to write a seminal piece on the interior regions of Sicily. Several people had already turned the job down, and soon she discovered why. Despite a meticulously drawn route and prearranged interview appointments, she was met at every turn with "misanthropic silences, closed doors and epic heat." Eventually she gave up.
Marlena's husband had come along for the ride, and before wending their way down from the mountains, they decided to take a day or two to recover. Finally, a policeman responded to their numerous inquiries for a place to stay. "There is a woman called Tosca. Her place is Villa Donnafugata (house of fleeing woman), although there's no sign to tell you so."
When they entered the gates they found what looked like a castle with sweeping gardens. In fact, it was nothing more than a hunting lodge, once belonging to the last Anjou prince in Sicily. Everywhere, they passed groups of women in long black dresses, laughing and singing as they went about their daily chores. A beautiful woman dressed in jodphurs and boots approached them. "I'm Tosca Brozzi. We'll be sitting down at one. I'll let you know later if there's room for you to stay."
From one of the other women there, Marlena learned that Tosca had inherited the villa from the prince, whose ward she once was. Bit by bit, she had restored the place. For more than thirty years she had lived there with an assortment of villagers who had found themselves alone, and in need of other people. This sort of communal life helped them to stay well, to stay young. Babies were born there, some people died there. "We are all related by affection," they said. "We are part of one another's history. We are Sicilian." They grew and prepared their own food, cared for the animals and for each other. Though there was much work to be done, it seemed to be merely a diversion to fill the hours between meals. "We eat often and well here, signora," Marlena was told. It was a society she never would have believed could exist.
"We never decide to stay but simply get caught up in the imperishable rituals and rhythms of the villa," wrote Marlena. One day Don Cosimo, a seventy-six year old priest, approached Marlena. He told her that he'd been the household's resident cleric and the prince's chauffeur when, fifty-six years previously, the prince had taken Tosca to live with him in the palace, a few hours drive from the lodge. "She was, even then, of that splendid arrogance. Leo claimed her when, I think, she was nine. Her beauty was already fearsome," he recalled. It was a common enough feudal custom, this sanctioned purloining of the children of one's peasants. Most people believed that the prince had requested Tosca. However, it was Tosca's father who'd offered her to the prince, in exchange for a stallion he coveted. And so Tosca was schooled by a French governess with the prince's daughters, tamed, formed, refined.
Later, it was Tosca who approached Marlena. "I'd like to tell you a story, Chou," she said. "Oh, I don't mean right now, of course. But soon. It's a long story, you see... It might take a few days. A week... I want to try out my story on someone from another place. I want to tell it to you, leave it with you, I guess, knowing that you'll go away." And so it began, the unfolding of a saga that spanned decades. It is a story that explores the ravages of war, poverty, the origins of the Cosa Nostra, the responsibilities of wealth and privilege, the cost of defying rigid traditions, the meaning of love, and finding one's true place in the world. It is also a story of miracles.
by Becky Lane
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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