First published 2008
Marlena de Blasi stumbles upon villa Donnafugata while traveling through Sicily's mountains with her husband Fernando. The crumbling castle becomes her unexpected refuge when she meets Tosca, the villa's elegant patroness who shares the story of her extraordinary life. Tosca recounts her journey from poverty to a fairy tale adoption into the palace of Prince Leo, the last descendant of French Anjou nobles ruling Sicily. Their love story unfolds against Sicily's backdrop of beauty and suffering, where ancient grandeur coexists with desperate need. When Prince Leo defies the local Mafia to improve his peasants' lives, his rebellion against the established order between rich and poor brings devastating consequences. In the present day, Tosca has transformed her inherited wealth into a sanctuary for the widowed women who once worked the prince's lands. De Blasi witnesses how these Sicilian widows create their daily rituals of care and celebration. The narrative moves between remote mountain villages and chaotic postwar Palermo, weaving together forbidden romance and cultural bewilderment into a story about embracing both sorrow and beauty.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-love, found-family
Setting: Sicily, Villa Donnafugata, Palermo
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
320 pages · Kindle Edition · Ballantine Books