Product Description

A crumbling farmhouse in Puglia, Casa Rossa was bought by Alina Strada’s grandfather at a time when no one else wanted it. Now busy preparing it for sale, Alina endeavors to recover the memories it still harbors—in particular of three women whose passions indelibly shaped her family’s dark past. There’s grandmother Renee, whose love of novelty won over everything else. Alina’s mother, Alba, whose marriage to a screenwriter inspired both great art and unbearable sadness. Finally Isabella, Alina’s sister, whose fervent politics drove her to ever-escalating betrayals. Moving from Jazz Age Paris to 1950s Rome to modern-day New York, but returning always to the uncompromising beauty of Italy’s south, Casa Rossa is a spellbinding story of how loves and losses, secrets and lies, resonate across the generations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282510 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-14
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Amazon.com
In Casa Rossa, Roman native Francesca Marciano tells a riveting tale of three generations of women whose separate acts of betrayal set the stage for later destruction. Renée, the grandmother, forsakes her artist husband and her life in rural Puglia at Casa Rossa, to live with a woman. Alba, her daughter, takes a lover and pushes her husband to suicide. Isabella and Alina, Alba's daughters, take extreme measures to keep each other out of their lives, leading to upheaval. Told through the voice of the youngest daughter, Alina, Casa Rossa weaves the selling and closure of the family estate with the family's sordid and unforgettable history. Spanning the 20th century and providing entrée into the not-so-incompatible worlds of Italian cinema and political terrorism, Marciano, author of Rules of the Wild, reveals an authenticity in the way this emotionally warped family comes to terms with its fragmented past. It's a fine, highly entertaining work, laced with lovely writing and emotionally resonant characters. --Emily Russin

From Publishers Weekly
In this passionate tale of three generations of one 20th-century Italian family, Marciano brings Southern Italy as boldy to life as she did Kenya in her first novel, the well-received Rules of the Wild (1998). As Alina Strada prepares to sell the family farmhouse in Puglia, she reflects on the tumultuous past, beginning with the purchase and restoration of the crumbling farmhouse before WWII by her grandfather, Lorenzo, a moderately successful portrait painter. When Lorenzo's Tunisian wife and model, Ren‚e, runs off with a German woman, he takes revenge by painting a huge nude of Renee on the inner patio wall. After a brief nervous breakdown, he marries his nurse, Jeanne, who immediately has the white stone house, so typical of the region, painted red-hence the name Casa Rossa-and the nude mural covered up. Lorenzo's daughter, Alba, has two daughters, Alina and Isabella, by her dashing husband, Oliviero, who leaves a murky legacy after his early demise. As the girls mature and governments come and go in postwar Italy, Alina has a brush with drugs, while her less fortunate sister, Isabella, joins a group of terrorists. Alina works for a time with a Fellini-esque filmmaker before moving to New York, where she gets a job at an art gallery and falls in love with an American. Alina's perspective on 1980s New York nicely complements her American boyfriend's subsequent view of Italy. The intricate complications may challenge belief, but the author imperturbably weaves them together into a glamorous, romantic whole.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Spanning the 20th century, this is the tale of three generations of Italian women. At the center of their lives and the connective thread among them is Casa Rossa, a beautiful old farmhouse in rural Puglia. As the novel begins, Alina is packing up the homestead and reflecting on the events that have led to the present. The first woman to run the house was her grandmother, Renee, who came to Casa Rossa as the young bride of Alina's painter grandfather and served as his model and muse. After growing bored with country life, she ran off to Nazi Germany with her new lover, leaving behind her husband and young daughter Alba, who also longed for more excitement. Alba ended up marrying a young screenwriter and moving to Rome, and the narrative continues with her daughters, Isabella and Alina. Marciano (Rules of the Wild) effectively intermingles family secrets, Italian history, and the loves and lives of her characters. A good read for fans of multigenerational sagas and modern Italian history, this is recommended for most libraries. Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Italian Secrets
A unique blend of page-turning drama with thoughful prose that makes the reader want to linger over the words. The varied plots about family secrets, political unrest, unfulfilled yearnings and an insider's view of Italy are skillfully woven into an enchanting tapestry. CASA ROSSA left this reader eager to visit Italy. Even before I finished this novel, I went out and bought the author's other novel.

Compelling and insightful
Francesca Marciano has the verbal equivalent of a master sculptor's chisel for creating believable characters. In "Casa Rossa" she not only tells a compelling tale about three generations of a southern Italian family, she gives many wonderful insights into daily life in Italy today and in the early 20th century. I particularly liked her spin on the tarantella. Although now merely a lively dance at Italian wedding receptions, Marciano reveals the folkloric purpose of the tarantella and the ritual that is connected with it with a clarity I had not before read. The novel has great atmospheric sense as well, whether the location is the deepest Italian south, Rome, northern Italy or New York. It's only drawback is its cinematic pace.

Enjoyable Fiction
Loved the fact that it was based in Italy. The family was a good depiction of the real thing. Liked the characters. Too predictable. Held my interest enough to finish the book. I would recommend reading.