| Ten stories of impoverished Sicilian women in the early 20th century-'honed, polished, devastatingly direct?.?.?. verismo at its unsentimental best' (Kirkus Reviews). ? The Sicilian writer Maria Messina's captivating and brutal stories of the women of her home island are presented in a 'lyrical and immediate' English translation by Elise Magistro (Publishers Weekly). ? Messina, who died in 1944, was the foremost female practitioner of verismo-the Italian literary realism pioneered by fellow Sicilian Giovanni Verga. Published between 1908 and 1928, Messina's fiction represents the massive Sicilian immigration to America occurring at that time. ? The individuals in these stories are caught between the traditions they respect and a desire to move beyond them. Women are shuttered in their houses, virtual servants to their families, left behind while working men immigrate to the United States in fortune-seeking droves. A cultural album that captures the lives of peasant, working-class, and middle-class women, 'Messina's words will leave their mark. Their power makes them impossible to forget' (The Philadelphia Inquirer). |
