Juliet Grames: The Seven or Eight Death of Stella Fortuna, 9781473686274, Hodder & Stoughton, hardback, available

(Deutsche Ausgabe: Die sieben oder acht Leben der Stella Fortuna, Droemer, September 2019)

As so often, I came to this book through a recommendation by a publishing colleague.  I would have missed a very unusual novel otherwise, a sweeping saga spanning over nine decades, set in Calabria/Italy and in the US, a portrait of the Fortuna family but mainly that of Stella Fortuna.  Stella’s fate stayed in my head when not reading which gives you an idea how much I was captured by this emotional story.  The archaic, barbaric patriarchy of her monstrous father Antonio affected all females in the Fortuna family, but most profoundly overshadowed the life of the two strongest, her mother Assunta and Stella’s. The narrator, whose identity is revealed much later in the book, recounts Stella’s life in an almost neutral tone giving the writing a very special edge. Stella’s battle for control over her own destiny fighting the codex decided by the men in their Italian clan is representative for countless female struggles. It left me terribly sad and furious at times but there were also some very funny moments.

Born into terrible poverty of  peasant life in 1920ties Calabria / Italy, where women were slaves to their men with no rights, good only for childbearing and servitude, Stella is named after her sister Mariastella who died under tragic circumstances in early childhood. Her entire life, Stella is convinced her dead sister is casting an evil eye over her fate, responsible for the eight near death experiences she luckily survives. When her brute of a father leaves for the US trying for a better life, they are able to enjoy independence for the first time. His home visits always lead to another pregnancy for Assunta increasing the mouths to feed. Her father finally sends papers for the whole family to immigrate to the US. Their sorrow of leaving their beloved mountain village is heartbreaking only topped by their dread to lose the little independence they enjoyed while her father was away.  The novel shifts into another gear when the Fortuna clan reaches the US. Stella has reached adulthood by now, a strong willed woman who has no desire to ever marry, clicking horns with her father the moment she touches American soil. What follows are 448 pages in total of gripping reading about family life versus the fight for independence with all its hardship, horrors, betrayal and also love.

The author Juliet Grames comes from a tight-knit Italian-American family herself which might be one of the reasons why this novel is so very authentic.