Simple Prayers - Softcover

Golding, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446670863 ISBN 13: 9780446670869

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1996

Synopsis

In the 14th century, on an Italian island called Riva di Pignoli, terrible and wonderful things happen. A corpse is washed up on the shore and is quickly hidden; a beautiful stranger arrives in possession of a miraculous secret; and spring fails to arrive.

About this title

From the Back Cover

With an original, captivating new voice in American literature, Michael Golding brings us a narrative iridescent with the colors and textures of medieval Italy. Steeped in mystical lore and magical realism, Simple Prayers creates a world we know all too well...a world where nature has been thrown off balance and where the passions and pleasures of daily life may prove fatal. Enter the fourteenth century on an Italian island in the Venice lagoon, a world where superstition reigns, where life and death are created by magical equations, where the land holds simple truths. A corpse with black welts washes up on this rustic island's quiet shores, foreshadowing great change among the villagers who are at once larger than life and more real than the neighbors next door. Here is Albertino, a simple fruit and vegetable vendor whose only luxuries are the cherished ornate boxes he collects. Here is Ermenegilda, the spoiled, obese daughter of the island's only wealthy family, who makes Albertino the unlikely object of her love. Here is Miriam, the exquisite stranger with a secret, who steals hearts of two young men. Here, too, is the ethereal young girl with the power to heal everything but the cruel heart of her own mother. These and the other villagers of Riva di Pignoli create a mesmerizing world of hope and desire even as the specter of the corpse looms from the shadows on the shore. As no one is immune to the change that suddenly permeates the island, no reader will be immune to the transcendent beauty of this magnificent novel.

About the Author

Michael Golding is the author of "Simple Prayers" and "Benjamin's Gift". He has also enjoyed success as an actor and screenwriter; his adaptation of the international best-seller "Silk" starred Keira Knightly and Alfred Molina. He lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446670863
• ISBN 13: 9780446670869
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320