From Library Journal
Spanning 1915 to 1961, with settings from Sicily to New York to England, Haines's latest novel focuses on Maria Verzotto, whose life is marked by turmoil. Eleven and aboard the Lusitania when it goes down, she is rescued by Edwin Grainger and taken to live with his Yorkshire family. This interval ends when she is raped and impregnated by a Grainger son and gives up her son to be raised by a Grainger friend. In her marriage to Italian singer Eddie Sabrini, Maria tolerates his chronic unfaithfulness until he makes a conquest of the orphaned Helen, an evacuee from the London bombings to whom Maria has offered a home. Other episodes center on Helen and on Guy, Maria's son. Whether describing the fright of one small girl in Sicily, or that of a wartime evacuee, or the emotions of these girls grown up, Haines's depiction is believable. Related individuals and events are also well drawn. Recommended. Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
