Eva Pasco

5.0 out of 5 stars

A Luscious Romance Rife with Tragedy!

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023

Author/poet Anna Casamento Arrigo’s luscious Romance rife with tragic outcomes abounds with vivid and sensual imagery, as well as excerpts from the literary classics which capture Nunzio and Mariella’s circumstances.

Taking place in Sicily’s countryside in the early 1950s, the reader becomes painfully aware of the counterproductive peasants’ fear of a wrathful God and their suspicions of young Father Nunzio Aragaona’s who benevolently challenges their ignorance.

Nunzio’s chance meeting of Mariella in an abandoned orchard fuels a forbidden romance, all the while she is married to Paolo, an abusive husband. Like Mariella, the reader cringes in fear for what he is capable of doing to her, while also becoming embroiled in the brutal murders of villagers, one after another.

The author weaves a vibrant tapestry brocaded with Nunzio’s words of wisdom, spoken during his trysts with Mariella throughout their ill-fated romance:

“I don’t think the world, in general, is willing to acknowledge, let alone accept the strength that many, if not all, women possess.”

“For every wrong, there is an equal and even greater right.”

I highly recommend this heart-wrenching story where evil secrets lurking in the shadows are exposed and thwarted.