The Madonna of the Mountains
This is the story of one woman’s struggles to maintain her marriage and particularly to protect her children during the Fascist Era and its immediate aftermath in 20th-century Italy. By 1923, at the age of 25, Maria Vittoria is considered almost too old to marry. It was her misfortune to be young during World War I, and her father refuses to let her marry anyone obviously scarred by the war against the Austrians. When her father finds an apparently strong, ambitious suitor for her, however, it is only the beginning of her trials. But no matter where she goes or what happens to her, her mother’s statue of the Madonna of the Mountains goes with her as her mentor and her conscience.
This is a sumptuously written book, even when it is portraying manual labour or the hardships of war. The author’s Italian-Australian background suggests that she has drawn upon family history to help her create the atmosphere of the time and the day-to-day life of an ordinary family in the Veneto region, whether farming in the mountains or shop-keeping in the plains below. Tiny details – about food, traditions, primitive methods of doing the laundry, or working with silkworms – come across as convincing in their precision. Anyone seeking a high-octane, break-neck rollercoaster of a novel should look elsewhere – this book is far too subtle and nuanced for that, even when dealing with potentially life-threatening situations as the Montanari family tries not to antagonise Fascists, Nazis, Partisans and those seeking post-war reprisals. The characters are complex and often at war with themselves, but also in many ways unknowable, in the way real people are. A novel to savour.
