SACRED HEARTS

Rosalyn Landor’s hushed voice perfectly renders the lives of the women who inhabit the sixteenth-century Benedictine convent of Santa Caterina. This story has two heroines. Sixteen-year-old Serafina, newly confined, seeks to renew the romance her father quelled. Landor creates Serafina's sense of entrapment and her furtive quest to regain control of her life. The second, older, heroine, Suora Zuanna, the convent’s medicinal mistress, serves as contrast. Landor gives her a calmness born out of her gratitude that she can explore the many remedies her beloved father once taught her. As the women's relationship develops, Landor fosters an air of agitation and restlessness that undermines Suora Zuanna's serenity. The author's research on Renaissance customs and the plight of women during that time is not lost in this nuanced reading. S.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2009]