Book Review - Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

Synopsis: By the second half of the sixteenth century, the price of wedding dowries had risen so high that most Italian aristocratic families could afford to marry off only one daughter. The remaining young women were dispatched into convents, & not all of them went willingly. Santa Caterina's new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to the core.

Serafina, a willful, emotional, furious girl, has just been ripped from her proposed marriage & sent by her noble family to Santa Caterina. During her first night inside, such is her violent, incandescent rage that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is sent to her cell to calm her with a draft of herbs. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust & betrayal. & while outside the convent walls the forces of the Counter-Reformation push for ever more repressive changes, Serafina's rebellious spirit challenges not only Zuana, but many other nuns who have made peace with the isolated life.

First Line: "Before the screaming starts, the night silence of the convent is already alive with its own particular sounds."

Random Quote: "They reach the top & step out into the open bell chamber. Their arrival disturbs a host of roosting pigeons, which rise up in a squawking fury of feathers & beating wings. The abbess waves her arms in wide circles, shooing them away, & the two women let out their own squawks of laughter as the birds swoop & clatter around their heads before lifting off & out into the air."

Review: I didn't know quite what to expect from this novel about 16th century convent life. I really like good historical fiction, but the convent setting wasn't all that appealing. I'm s

Image by Fabio (Rome - Italy) via Flickr

o glad I read it anyway.

This was a wonderful & thought-provoking book. The characters (even the minor ones) are fully fleshed. The setting is used to the greatest advantage in the telling of the story - the claustrophobia of it, the beauty of it, the sense of the town & the outside world pressing against the convent walls. I loved learning about the day-to-day lives of these nuns & the ways they learned to live fully (or not so fully) in their world. The story of the dispensary sister, her garden, her remedies (learned from her doctor father) was also fascinating - I loved learning about how all kinds of cures were made. It's interesting to realize how many of these cures are still in use today in one form or another.

It is sobering to note that many of these women were walled up in convents against their will, to increase the dowries of a sibling or because they were disfigured, or just not very pretty, or not very smart or - perhaps worst of all - far too smart & talented. We've certainly come a long way. & yet despite the narrow confines of the nunnery & the narrowly defined roles assigned to these women they created full & rich lives & found ways to govern themselves, to make music & art, & to in many ways remove themselves from the world of men.

This was a moving story & a fascinating look into another world. Highly recommended.