Antonia and Her Daughters: Secrets, Love, Friendship and Family in Tuscany - Softcover

De Blasi, Marlena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1743317387 ISBN 13: 9781743317389

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2013

Synopsis

The next volume of memoir from the author of the international bestseller A Thousand Days in Venice introduces the extraordinary Antonia, imperious matriach of four generations of strong-willed Tuscan women

The renovations to 34 via del Duomo now complete, Marlena de Blasi, the bestselling international author and "the woman with the fairy-tale life" needs to find time and space to finish a book. Lured by the offer of a simple stone cottage in the remote, mountainous region of western Tuscany, distant from the distractions of her everyday life with Fernando in Orvieto, she sets off for some much-needed solitude. But her plans to live simply, in peace and quiet, are overturned when she meets the imperious, tempestuous Antonia, the still-stunning, elderly matriarch of a large, complicated family of four generations of beautiful blue-eyed Italian women, all with stories and ideas of their own. Antonia dislikes tourists and outsiders, and so Marlena at first spars and clashes with her before they reach an understanding. Over feasts and family dinners, walking in the dark before sunrise to harvest wild lettuces, preparing meals and exchanging recipes, the two women joust, joke, exchange confidences, and grow closer and closer until finally Antonia reveals the terrible secrets behind the vivid beauty of Il Castelleto. Evocative, powerful, and haunting, this is a compelling insight into Italy's recent past and a revealing glimpse into one extraordinary woman's story and her kitchen.

About this title

About the Author:

Marlena de Blasi is the bestselling author of That Summer in Sicily, A Thousand Days in Venice, Tuscan Secrets, An Umbrian Love Story, and a novel, Amandine. She has been a chef, a journalist, a food and wine consultant, and a restaurant critic. She is also the author of two internationally published cookbooks of Italian food.

From Booklist:

De Blasi, author of A Thousand Days in Venice (2002), digs a little deeper in her latest memoir, chronicling not only her own experiences but also the story of a passionate Tuscan matriarch. When Marlena accepts the offer of a friend’s isolated cottage, in order to finish the book she is working on in solitude, she gets more than she bargained for when she meets Antonia, a feisty octogenarian rightfully suspicious of expatriates with romantic notions of life and love in the Italian countryside. As the two form a prickly friendship, Antonia begins to reveal, layer by layer, the harrowing, heart-wrenching tale of her wartime experiences, as she struggled, at great personal cost, to protect her family. De Blasi’s liquid prose will draw readers into this testament to love, loss, friendship, and, ultimately, survival. --Margaret Flanagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1743317387
• ISBN 13: 9781743317389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320