I read Sarah Dunant's latest novel, Sacred Hearts, on a recent trip. I loved this book. If you get your books from a library, put in a request for it right now, before the wait list gets too long. It will.Sacred Hearts is set in an Italian convent in 1570. Many young noblewomen of the time were placed involuntarily in convents by their families, who were unable to provide a marriage dowry for more than one daughter.
With meticulous period detail, Dunant tells the story of Serafina, a young novice placed in the convent of Santa Caterina against her will. Serfina is desperately in love with a young man, of whom her family disapproves, and desperate to escape.
Serafina is befriended by Suora Zuana, the convent's apothecary, who was herself placed in the convent involuntarily, after the death of her father. Zuana has become reconciled to, and has embraced, convent life, and hopes to ease Serafina's transition.
The convent community is a small society. Under the leadership of Madonna Chiara, the abbess, the convent supports itself through cottage industries, takes care of its members, and maintains some relationship to the outside world. However, the stability and structure of the community are threatened from within, by issues of faith, personal conflicts, and power struggles, and from without, by potential changes to convent life contemplated by the Counter-Reformation.
As the story progresses, Serafina becomes more determined to escape, Zuana becomes more conflicted, the stability of the community becomes more fragile, and Sacred Hearts becomes a real page-turner. Highly recommended.
