The Church of Solitude

by Grazia Deledda

Overview

The Church of Solitude tells the story of Maria Concezione, a young Sardinian seamstress living with breast cancer at the cusp of the twentieth century. Overwhelmed by the shame of her diagnosis, she decides that no one can know what has happened to her, but the heavy burden of this secrecy changes her life in dramatic ways and almost causes the destruction of several people in her life. This surprising novel paints the portrait of a woman facing the unknown with courage, faith, and self-reliance, and is the last and most autobiographical work of Grazia Deledda, who died of breast cancer in 1936, shortly after its publication. An afterword by the translator offers additional information on the author and examines the social and historical environment of that time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791488188
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	09/18/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	291 KB

About the Author

Grazia Deledda (1871–1936), the only Italian woman to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1926), is largely remembered today for her exalted prose and stark portraits of social change in early twentieth-century Sardinia. She wrote over sixty volumes, including novels, stories, and folklore of Sardinia, poetry, and essays. Her other translated works include After the Divorce; Cosima; Elias Portolu; Reeds in the Wind; and The Mother.

E. Ann Matter is the R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published several books, including The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity.

Table of Contents

No table of contents available for this publication.

Editorial Reviews

Italian author Deledda left over 60 works when she died in 1936, shortly after this novel was published. Though the prolific author won the Nobel prize in 1926, she was largely unrecognized in her homeland. This work is the story of Maria Concezione, a Sardinian seamstress who, at 28, undergoes surgery for breast cancer, the disease that killed the author. It is the beginning of the 20th century, and Concezione lives with her mother, Maria Giustina. After her diagnosis, Concezione eschews thoughts of marriage and a future and resigns herself to tending the small church built by her grandfather to atone for his sins. The story reads like a fairy tale, though one turned on its head. Instead of our "princess" being rescued from her fate, she transforms the young men who are suddenly thrust upon her as suitable husbands. But can she turn her back on Aroldo, the young laborer with big dreams for whom she does have feelings? This tale of faith and strength in the face of illness is beautiful. Though written more than 65 years ago, it is still timely, with its portrayal of a woman who lays blame for her disease on her past and her wavering devotion. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. - Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This tale of faith and strength in the face of illness is beautiful. Though written more than sixty-five years ago, it is still timely, with its portrayal of a woman who lays blame for her disease on her past and her wavering devotion.” — Library Journal

“Benighted, hot-blooded, moving, Grazia Deledda’s unjustly forgotten novel—about a fiercely proud, fiercely resigned woman struggling with dark truths—is a benchmark in the evolution of attitudes toward cancer and sexual passion.” — Susan Sontag

“Concezione’s secret nearly destroys the man who loves her in this powerful novel by Grazia Deledda, gracefully translated by E. Ann Matter.” — Martha King, translator of Cosima by Grazia Deledda

“A moving story, simply (even austerely) told, and the translation captures the narrator’s strengths. Deledda’s short novel is packed with emotions and mystery, with many kinds of love, a fatal illness that can’t be named, humor and kindness, greed and lust. The heroine is a compelling figure, at once simple and complex, remote and ‘simpatica.’ Her world is exotic but her problems are not.” — Joan Ferrante, Columbia University

“The poetic detail of Deledda’s prose, and Matter’s ability to translate with ease her descriptions of landscape, weather, and seasons, make this a wonderful contribution to the literature of women of Italian background.” — Mary Jo Bona, author of Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers

“Set in the early part of the last century, before breast cancer was openly discussed, this novel sheds much-needed insight into the mental state and experience of that time period.” — Rosemarie LaValva, Binghamton University

“This translation allows non–Italian speaker access to a most important novel by one of Italy’s best novelists.” — Anthony Julian Tamburri, coeditor of From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana

From the Publisher