Titles > Fiction > Lives Of The Saints

enlarge image Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci Novel ISBN: 978-1-896951-43-0 247 pages Trade Paper 5.5" X 8.5" $19.95

Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci Click to listen to Nino Ricci discuss Lives of The Saints (wave, 27.2mb). TWENTIETH PRINTING! A national bestseller for seventy-five weeks, Lives of the Saints is the winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Smithbooks/Books In Canada First Novel Award, and the Bressani Prize. Selected for the Classic Reprint Series. When young Vittorio Innocente’s mother, Cristina, is bitten by a snake during an encounter with a blue-eyed stranger, the superstitions and prejudices rampant in their small Italian town immediately boil to the surface. For the independent-minded Cristina, however, the worst is yet to come, as the townsfolk notices the swell of her stomach. The villagers, and even her father, the Mayor, ostracize and isolate her. Vittorio, meanwhile, barely grasping the situation, is taunted by the children at school, befriended only by a compassionate teacher who gives him her valued copy of Lives of the Saints, which he pores over as an escape from his daily torments. Eight months pregnant and unable to abide her treatment in the village any longer, Cristina books a passage to Canada for herself and Vittorio, but not to join her husband Mario, who sailed there when Vittorio was only an infant. Nino Ricci’s classic bestseller is a poignant coming-of-age story and a searing look at a post-war Italy still mired in petty intolerances. About Nino Ricci. Be sure to visit Nino's website.