Casa Rossa: A Novel [Hardcover]

Francesca Marciano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2002

A mesmerizing story of three generations of a twentieth-century Italian family.

Casa Rossa—a farmhouse in Puglia owned by the Strada family—is being sold. And as she packs up the house, Alina Strada pieces together the history of her family’s past, and of the lives of three extraordinary Strada women.

Grandmother Renée, a beautiful Tunisian, is wife, muse, and model for Alina’s painter grandfather, but she leaves him and flees to Nazi Germany. Alina’s mother, Alba, marries a melancholic screenwriter and lives la dolce vita in 1950s Rome until her husband’s mysterious death. Isabella, Alina’s sister and once her best friend, finds herself drawn to a dangerous ideology in the 1970s; the sisters’ love for one another soon shifts to a betrayal of which they can never speak. As these individual lives unfold, so does the larger one—the story of a family whose secrets collide with history.

From the duplicity of Italy’s role in the thirties to the dark years of terrorism in our own times, and moving from Rome and Southern Italy to New England and New York City, Casa Rossa is a brilliant weave of lives and memories: an enthralling novel.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; First Edition edition (August 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375421238
• ISBN-13: 978-0375421235
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,252,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping saga, powerful women, beautiful Puglia, September 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Casa Rossa: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved Rules of the Wild, with its witty and incisive look at European expatriates in East Africa but I was totally unprepared for Casa Rossa. It is a very ambitious book. A gripping saga of a southern Italian family, it spans 3 generations, and would be a great book just for the ride, Paris in the '20, giddy Rome in the'50s (cinecitta, paparazzis), Italy under the dark influence of terrorism in the '70s, all anchored by the family old house in beautiful, hot Puglia. At the core of the story is the complex relationship between a mother and two daughters, their family secrets, the transformation of family history as it is passed down.These are strong, funny, at times terrifying women. What an exciting, wonderful book...

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and insightful, April 29, 2003

By 

R. A. Masullo "Italoamericano vero" (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casa Rossa: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Character Development, January 7, 2003

By 

Stacy (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casa Rossa: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was not certain I would enjoy Casa Rossa after reading the first chapter, but was shortly thereafter swept away by the various stories within the novel. Marciano does a fantastic job at character development. More than likely, you will need to keep reading to find out what will happen to them. Each character also has a distinct personality that shows the depth of the novel. This is the type of novel that remains in your thoughts throughout the day until you can return to it again. If you are interested in Italian culture, this novel should also intrigue you.