Ten Great Books set in SARDINIA

11th May 2023

Ten Great Books set in Sardinia. Sardinia is a large Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. It has nearly 2,000km of coastline, sandy beaches and a mountainous interior crossed with hiking trails. Its rugged landscape is dotted with thousands of nuraghi – mysterious Bronze Age stone ruins shaped like beehives.

‘Dare a tenner sa coe de s’ambidda’. You might as well try to hold an eel by its tail. Sardinian proverb

Children of the Mists by Lexa Dudley

This is a story of enduring love. Set in the 1800s, life on Sardinia had barely changed since the time of the Caesars. Two families, the Sannas and the Canus, are united by friendship and honour; love and laughter; joy and promises; omens and superstitions; youth and experience transcend generations.
However, for Raffaella and Antonio their love becomes entangled with revenge. Death changes devotion. Promises are forgotten. Vendettas can’t be ignored. Ambition clouds judgements. Antonio and Raffaella were promised to each other, nothing would keep them apart, not even family. Committed to each other, they fight for their love against all odds.

Lexa won the Romance category with the Book Excellence Awards 2016 with Children of the Mists in the Sardinia section.

Blindsided by Julian Edge

Sardinia: Beautiful landscapes, fascinating history and a unique blend of cultures. For Ralph and Clare, a working holiday also offers an opportunity to get their marriage back on track.

Then a chance meeting with Tex and Cass provides new companions on their tour of the island.

But how easy is it to tell welcome short-cuts from dangerous diversions, misunderstandings from deceptions and bad luck from betrayal?

And finally, when everyday existence turns on life-or-death decisions, what does it take to become the hero of your own story?

Bloodlines by Marcello Fois

When Giuseppe Mundula first sees Michele Angelo Chironi across the corridor of a Sardinian orphanage, the reserved blacksmith realises he has found the son and heir he never knew he needed. And when, a few years later, Michele himself looks down from a church rooftop and sees the beautiful Mercede, the quiet orphan realises he has found the woman he will marry.

So begins Marcello Fois’ magisterial domestic epic of the lives and loves of the Chironi family, as they struggle through war and fascism. Deftly endowing familial horrors with mythical resonance, Fois creates a Dantesque triptych that inscribes the history of twentieth-century Sardinia onto a single misbegotten household.

Emerald Coast by Anita Hughes

Set on the glamorous Italian island, Anita Hughes’s Emerald Coast is a touching and humorous story about marriage and the difficulty of finding love and happiness at the same time.

Lily Bristol arrives at a luxurious resort in Sardinia for the grand opening of her newest home furnishing store on the Emerald Coast. She’s a successful business woman with an international chain of stores from San Francisco to Milan. Thirty-two and newly divorced, she’s ready to handle things on her own. At least until her private butler, Enzo, escorts her to a beautiful suite where she notices a suspiciously familiar pair of men’s slippers and shaving kit.

Lily is horrified. Her ex-husband Oliver moved out of their restored Connecticut farmhouse six months ago, but they booked this trip when they were trying to save their marriage and never cancelled the reservation. Oliver, a food critic for the New York Times, is here covering Sardinia’s hottest new restaurant. The only other available room is the adjoining suite; and worse, Oliver isn’t alone. He’s brought a twenty-something named Angela with him.

Lily is determined to make do and enlists Enzo to find her a suitable man. But it’s not as easy to find new love as they both expected. When Lily and Oliver find themselves alone on a very important night, they turn to each other. Sparks begin to fly, but can they be together without breaking each other’s hearts?

The Little Theatre By The Sea by Rosanna Ley

Faye has just completed her degree in interior design when she finds herself jobless and boyfriend-less. While debating what to do next she receives a surprise phone call from her old college friend Charlotte who now lives in Sardinia and is married to Italian hotelier, Fabio.

When Charlotte suggests that Faye relocate for a month to house-sit, Faye wonders if a summer break in sunny Sardinia might be the perfect way to recharge her batteries and think about her future. But then Charlotte tells Faye that there’s something more behind the sudden invitation: her friends Marisa and Alessandro are looking for a designer to renovate a crumbling old theatre they own in the scenic village of Deriu. The idea certainly sounds appealing to Faye, but little does she know what she’s letting herself in for if she accepts this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity . . .

Accabadora by Michela Murgia, translated by Silvester Mazzarella

When Maria, the fourth child of a widow, is adopted by the old and childless Bonaria Urrai, her life is instantly transformed – she finally has the love and affection she craves. But her new ‘soul mother’ is keeping something hidden from her, a secret life that is intimately bound-up with Sardinia’s ancient traditions and customs. Midwife to the dying, easing their suffering and sometimes ending it, she is revered and feared in equal measure as the village’s Accabadora.

Bonaria tries to shield the girl from the truth about her role as an angel of mercy, until, moved by the pleas of a young man crippled in an accident, she breaks her golden rule of familial consent. The consequences – for Bonaria, for Maria and for the whole village, are devastating – and cause a rift between the two women that can only be bridge by another death.

Death in Sardinia by Marco Vichi

Florence, 1965. A man is found murdered, a pair of scissors stuck through his throat. Only one thing is known about him – he was a loan shark, who ruined and blackmailed the vulnerable men and women who would come to him for help.

Inspector Bordelli prepares to launch a murder investigation. But the case will be a tough one for him, arousing mixed emotions: the desire for justice conflicting with a deep hostility for the victim. And he is missing his young police sidekick, Piras, who is convalescing at his parents’ home in Sardinia.

But Piras hasn’t been recuperating for long before he too has a mysterious death to deal with . . .

Under a Sardinian Sky by Sara Alexander

For Mina, a London-based travel writer, the enigmatic silence surrounding her aunt Carmela has become a personal obsession.

Carmela disappeared from her Italian hometown long ago and is mentioned only in fragments and whispers. Mina has resisted prying, respectful of her family’s Sardinian reserve. But now, with her mother battling cancer, it’s time to learn the truth.

In 1952, Simius is a busy Sardinian town surrounded by fertile farms and orchards. Carmela Chirigoni, a farmer’s daughter and talented seamstress, is engaged to Franco, son of the area’s wealthiest family. Everyone agrees it’s a good match. But Carmela’s growing doubts about Franco’s possessiveness are magnified when she meets Captain Joe Kavanagh.

Joe, an American officer stationed at a local army base, is charismatic, intelligent, and married. Hired as his interpreter, Carmela resolves to ignore her feelings, knowing that any future together must bring upheaval and heartache to both families.

As Mina follows the threads of Carmela’s life to uncover her fate, she will discover a past still deeply alive in the present, revealing a story of hope, sacrifice, and extraordinary love.

The Island Escape by Kerry Fisher

Can one woman’s marriage survive her best friend’s divorce? Fans of Veronica Henry and Erica James, this is the next book to add to your reading list.

It’s time to get back to where it all began…

Octavia Sheldon thought she’d have a different life. One where she travelled the world with an exotic husband and free-spirited children in tow. But things didn’t turn out quite like that.

Married to safe, reliable Jonathan, her life now consists of packed lunches, school runs and more loads of dirty washing than she ever thought possible. She’s not unhappy. It’s just that she can barely recognise herself any longer.

So as Octavia watches her best friend’s marriage break up, it starts her thinking. What if life could be different? What if she could escape and get back to the person she used to be? Escape back to the island where she spent her summers? And what if the man she used to love was there waiting for her…?

Love in Another Time by Lexa Dudley

England, 1947. Ellie Montford is sent to boarding school by her cold and distant parents, joining her best friend’s family on their farm for the holidays. She forges a bond with her friend’s brother, Simon, who promises to marry her – but childhood promises may not last…

Sardinia, 1961. Ellie, now a young woman, joins her parents in Cagliari, where her father works for the Foreign Office. Attending classes at the local university she meets Gino, a young professor.

Is he really everything he claims? Or is their love doomed to fail?

Sardinia, 2006. Ellie’s granddaughter Sara is sent by her company to Cagliari. On a night out, she meets Luca, an archaeologist and professor. Their love affair mirrors that of her grandmother and Ginos from over forty years before.

Their happiness is short-lived as Sara finds hints of a long-buried secret which could separate them. Who is Luca, and what is his connection to Gino?

Sara must find the answers before she can find happiness and make her family whole again.

Enjoy your ten great books set in Sardinia – and let us know in the Comments below if you have any other favourites.

Tony for the TripFiction team

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