Novel set in the Veneto, Italy (Food, Family, History)

20th June 2018

The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida, novel set in the Veneto, Italy.

This book cover is noteworthy: it is the first title to have a bespoke Liberty of London design. The collaboration between Liberty and publishers Faber & Faber unites “the best writers in the world with one of the globe’s foremost design teams”. Just such a lovely cover and I understand there are more book cover collaborations in the pipeline!

The story of life, love, loss, betrayal and war spans the 1920s up to the 1950s, set against the unforgiving backdrop of Italy’s Veneto region. The book opens with Maria Vittoria as she embroiders a sheet for her dowry trunk. Her father has been on his travels, searching for a suitable husband for her, now that she is hitting the mature age of 25, on the old side for marriage. He returns with Achille who seems to be just the right choice. And this is Maria Vittoria’s story of family, through highs and lows, spanning several decades of world and personal tumult, all under the watchful eye of the eponymous statue of the title.

Maria projects her thoughts onto the statue and parks the critical and undermining assessment of her sometimes precarious life decisions with her little votive figurine who often gives her a good talking to. The undermining tone is unmissable.

Maria produces several children, with miscarriages and still births along the way. She and Achille manage to acquire a grocery shop which flourishes until WW2 breaks out. Upholding integrity with the pressures of war becomes nearly impossible and sacrifices have to be made. The demands on her marital relationship becomes heavy as Fascism lurks at ever corner, with all manner of folk ready, willing and able to spy and denounce. Things between her and Achille are fragile.

Having manoeuvred their way through the vagaries of war, their many children start to develop wings but do not always follow a suitable family script.

Essentially this is a well told story, how Maria’s family negotiates life, both as a unit and as individuals within that unit. It sumptuously describes some of the food (recipes at the end), it comprises very tactile and descriptive prose.  The Veneto of the period is beautifully brought to life in all its grinding hardship and poverty, and it is little wonder that Maria and Achille yearn to leave behind their little world and emigrate to pastures new.

The prose is sparse, there is little extraneous content – reflecting the exigencies of the era – as the story sweeps the reader through the years. The sewing that often features is like a metaphor for life – done, undone and redone. The author has chosen to write in the present tense, which no doubt offers immediacy, giving the words a staccato and brisk feel; it can be functional, again mirroring life without many home comforts. I really enjoyed the story, it is a book that deserves to be read widely, as it is so evocative of time and place; but it does confirm for me that my reading preference is not really for novels set totally in the present tense; I fully understand, however, why the author chose the present tense for this novel.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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