The Dust Roads of Monferrato - Hardcover

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Reading The Dust Roads of Monferrato is like standing alone before an ancient tapestry in an old museum. There is a hush; the story before you is muted but rich, full of glowing browns, faded oranges and greens. A best-seller and winner of numerous awards in Italy, The Dust Roads of Monferatto encompasses four generations of a rural nineteenth-century Italian family: the Great Masten, who builds a house and accumulates land; his two sons Giai and Pidren, who both love the same woman; and Pidren's children and grandchildren. There is almost no dialogue, but rather than distancing the reader, this makes the book seem timeless. Pairs of brothers, sisters, and lovers come and go, form bonds then gracefully or violently break them. There are floods and wars, childbirth and illness. Pidren's granddaughter and her half-brother fall in love; later she will marry someone else. At times you can hear the fiddle of the long-dead Giai along the halls; outside the walnut tree spreads ever wider. In her room, a dying woman cries repeatedly "Where has my sister gone" and her young grand-niece knows "from afar, from its source, that chant dragged with it, like the magic piper, the formless characters of dreams. Things similar to the first years of life, or perhaps the same things." From a view that is both sweeping and intimately detailed, the intensity and movement of these lives is covered and soothed by the dust of time. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister