The Madonna of the Mountains: A Novel
(Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Elise Valmorbida. (2018). The Madonna of the Mountains: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.

Elise Valmorbida. 2018. The Madonna of the Mountains: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.

Elise Valmorbida, The Madonna of the Mountains: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2018.

Elise Valmorbida. The Madonna of the Mountains: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2018.

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1. • value: family
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3. • value: World War II
4. • value: Faith
5. • value: literary fiction
6. • value: War
7. • value: Endurance
8. • value: Historical
9. • value: motherhood
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41. • value: inspirational books
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creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Valmorbida, Elise
   • bioText: Elise Valmorbida is the author of the novels Matilde Waltzing, The TV President, and The Winding Stick, as well as The Book of Happy Endings. She is also a designer and an award-winning producer and script consultant. She grew up Italian in Australia, but now lives in London.
   • name: Elise Valmorbida

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title

The Madonna of the Mountains

fullDescription

“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

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 1, 2018
     

     In 1923, in the mountains of Northern Italy, Maria Vittoria, 25 and past marriageable age, awaits her father's return home with a suitable match. Achille is a handsome veteran from another valley, as most of the local men had been lost to the Great War or already spoken for. Her mother's wedding gift to the couple is a statue of the Virgin Mary, to whom Maria vows to pray. Maria and Achille move to a small town where he buys a grocery store. Although four children are born to the couple, the marriage is fraught with domestic violence and financial struggles as Mussolini's Fascist Party comes to power. The family struggles to survive tested loyalties and further hardships when the Germans invade, but resilient Maria remains determined and devoted throughout. VERDICT Somewhat reminiscent of Albert Moravia's Two Women, Valmorbida's (Book of Happy Endings) historical novel, which includes numerous Italian words, many not translated, as well as a deep understanding of the tenets of Catholicism, focuses on Italy between two World Wars. Her powerful epic is a solid choice for readers who appreciate layered family sagas involving betrayals and broken hearts. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA

     Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 15, 2018
     One woman's life serves as an exemplar of the harsh realities experienced by an Italian generation marked by war in this panoramic, yet site-specific, novel.Maria Vittoria is a bride of advanced age--25--as Valmorbida (The Winding Stick, 2009, etc.) begins her story. In 1923, her father produces a groom for her, Achille, a World War I veteran, and the story of Maria's life begins to unfold, along with the story of a family and a country devastated by competing loyalties and warring factions. Maria and Achille settle in the plains, in the village of Fosso, but the wisdom imparted to her by the emblematic Madonna of the Mountains, a statue of the Virgin Mary which Maria carries with her throughout her life, harkens back to the rough-hewn lessons and truths of her early life in the mountains of the north. As Maria and Achille nurture both their growing family and a thriving grocery business, the rising power of fascism and the cruel privations of World War II threaten to destroy all the couple has so doggedly worked to create. Valmorbida's narrative raises issues of misogyny, family loyalty, and moral ambiguity during wartime in an organic way while maintaining the tension and characterization needed to advance a family saga. As the tale approaches a postwar finale, Maria must make peace with past decisions and, once again, depends on her companion since youth, the eponymous Madonna, for guidance.Valmorbida belongs to a family that emigrated from Italy to Australia after World War II, and the wartime horrors endured by her characters may invite speculation about the autobiographical nature of this work--but the moral and ethical questions raised propel the story beyond the particulars into the universal.

     COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     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.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 15, 2018
     Maria Vittoria is overjoyed when her father brings home a strong, handsome husband for her. At 25, Maria is practically a spinster. The First World War has reduced Italy's bachelor population, and Maria has been praying to the Madonna for a good husband. At first, Achille treats her well, but as they face struggles, he turns violent. While they open a small grocery store and expand their family with several children, Maria continues to pray to the Madonna, who provides comfort to Maria as Italy edges close to WWII, and as she is forced to make difficult choices for her and her family to survive. Valmorbida (The Book of Happy Endings, 2014) deftly portrays Maria's rising desperation and, along with her daughter, Amelia, her unbreakable strength. The two face unimaginable hardships and, through the love of their family and faith, persevere. Although slow moving, this novel is a well-written family saga that would appeal to fans of Elena Ferrante and those who like historical women's fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

popularity

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“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...

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