The Singing of Swans [Paperback]

Mary Saracino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2006

19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards finalist in the Spirituality Category. Madalene Ross's complacent life is about to be turned upsde down. Never one to make waves, she's content to coast along, live in her head, guard her heart, and pay no mind to national or world events. But lately weird events have been happening. On the way to her downtown office building she's hounded by a homeless woman who asks, "Got a match?" At night bizarre dreams haunt her sleep. Women fly through rooftops, chant in ancient temples, paint tongues of fire on vivid white canvases. Was it something she ate? The stress of rumored downsizing and impending layoffs? Or a message trying to rouse her benumbed spirit? Will Madalene pull the cover over her eyes and fall back to sleep? Or wake up and smell the triple venti latte?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Roman poet Ovid sang of the beautiful Sicilian lake where Persephone descended to the otherword--a lake now dying from overdevelopment. No siren's song could be more commanding than this novel centered on that magical lake. Generations of women--call them pagans, call them witches--join their voices in this tightly wrought chorus."

Patricia Monaghan
author of The Goddess Path & The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Publisher

The newest novel by Mary Saracino tells the story of Madalene Ross, a 30-year-old American who "lives in her head," cut off from her body, her heart, and her sense of purpose in the world. Madalene's story is interwoven with the lives of three women: Rosalina, a priestess of Persephone in 70 BCE Sicily; Ziza, a strega (Italian witch) in 16th century northeastern Italy, and Ibla, an herbalist and painter in 18th century southern Italy. An environmentally compromised lake in Sicily also acts as a portal to the rich tradition of pre-Christian spirituality that lies beneath Church dogma.

Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile, calls it "a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Pearlsong Press (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597190063
• ISBN-13: 978-1597190060
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

While I have lived in Denver, Colorado since 1997, I was born in Seneca Falls, NY and moved to the Twin Cities area of Minnesota just before I turned thirteen. I lived in Minnesota for 30 years before relocating to Denver.

I grew up in western NY state in a working class family of first and second generation Italian American immigrants, so reading books was not something I did often as a child (except for the encyclopedia and Lives of the Saints books!). An elementary teacher took an interest in me and had me enrolled in the Great Books Club, a program that introduced elementary school students to condensed versions of the classics.

I have a B.A. in English, which nurtured my love of reading and writing. I attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and studied American Studies/Women's Studies.

I wrote my first short story in high school and had my first poems published in my college literary magazine. My first creative nonfiction piece, "On Being Italian American: an Introspection", was published in the Summer/Fall 1990 issue of the journal, Sinister Wisdom. After that things started to happen for me. My first novel, No Matter What, followed in 1993. Finding Grace was published in 1999 and my memoir, Voices of the Soft-bellied Warrior came out in 2001. My newest novel, The Singing of Swans, is due to be published in the fall of 2006 by Pearlsong Press.

I write to figure out what I think or feel about a subject. I write what I feel drawn to write. A character or subject matter pops up and grabs my attention then I run with it, listening for where it wants to take me.

My taste in reading material is eclectic. I tend to gravitate toward well-written, engrossing books that don't typically make the traditional top ten lists. I like fresh voices and work that isn't afraid to rock the boat. Lately I've been reading novels written by contemporary African women. Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions is a good read as is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I've just finished Reeds in the Wind by Sardinian Nobel Laureate, Grazia Deledda. Other favorite novels include Paper Fish by Tina DeRosa and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Madalene and the Goddess, October 1, 2007

By 

Linda C. Wisniewski (Bucks County, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Singing of Swans (Paperback)

Mary Saracino's novel, The Singing of Swans, is so chock full of goddess lore I am tempted to keep it for a reference book. The author has crammed her story with well-researched information about the Dark Mother, Cybele, or Demeter, who she calls "humankind's first deity, and our most ancient memory."

The story begins with Ziza, a woman who flies through the roof of her house on a night in September, 1575 and meets with other "keepers of the blood ways," shamans, healers, herbalists and astral travelers. They are the Benandanti, and four times a year they leave their bodies to battle the Malandanti, their arch enemies, thus ensuring a bountiful harvest.

In the second chapter, we meet Madalene Ross, a workaholic software specialist in Minneapolis who smokes, drinks and is troubled by strange dreams of old women chanting and holding handfuls of herbs.

Soon she is stalked by a homeless woman who appears out of nowhere and tells Maddie "Your Mother wants to talk to you." And then Madalene finds a note that says "Go to the Lake" written in her own handwriting.

In her closet, in a box her deceased mother saved for her, Maddie finds a notebook labeled "Rossolino Family Tree" and a small figure of the Virgin Mother with dark skin. Still troubled by disturbing dreams of women healers, Madalene suddenly loses her job in a corporate downsizing. She gives in to an overwhelming desire to travel to Pergusa, Italy, in search of her family's roots.

Meanwhile, the author takes us back to the women of the Benandanti as they struggle through the years. The leaders of the Catholic Church try to demolish their traditions and force them to conform to church teachings. Some of their tactics are violent, but the women persevere. In secret, they keep their worship of the Dark Mother alive. She is called the Black Madonna by all who join them, accepting her as the virgin mother of Jesus, which the church allows. But in secret, they worship her as the Divine She, a deity in her own right.

I first learned about the Black Madonna as a child, when I saw a painting of her in my Polish Catholic church. I was told that in the original painting in Czestochowa, Poland, her skin was blackened in a fire. Imagine my surprise and joy to discover, as an adult woman, that her image is older than the Church and can be found throughout the world. Most recently, I visited another Black Madonna in a four-hundred-year old church in Puerto Rico, and was told her skin was darkened by the sun.

Back in the present time, Madalene arrives in Pergusa and finds the lake is dying from pollution. She meets an eco-feminist working to save the lake. In a dream, she meets Ziza and the other ancient women, learns about the long tradition of the Dark Mother and talks with her own mother, who urges her to use her intuition, which she has always ignored, as well as her brain.

Madalene realizes what she needs is to reclaim her self, in all its complexity, just as others are reclaiming Lake Pergusa. For me, she is a stand-in for women as a whole, throughout history, especially in times of patriarchy. Saracino is realistic in her portrayal of the violence of women's struggle for personal power and self-determination in ancient times. We would do well to remember this and realize that even today, voiceless women suffer at the hands of male-dominated societies around the world, a story we don't often see on the evening news.

Without being heavy-handed or taking political sides, Saracino educates the reader about women's spirituality, herbalism and Italian culture and traditions, while keeping us turning the pages, rooting for Madalene and following her adventures to the conclusion.

Linda C. Wisniewski, Author of Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage
Previously posted at [...].

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read! This book kept me up at night., November 16, 2006

By 

F Ranoli "author & speaker" (CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Singing of Swans (Paperback)

I could not put The Singing of Swans down. From the first page, I was hooked. There are plots within plots, characters to fall in love with, all twisting and dancing together to delight and inspire the reader. I felt transported to ancient Sicily and completely caught up in the lives of the Healers, Priestesses and followers of the Black Madonna.
Mary does an excellent job of making their lives and experiences personal and real to the reader. It is rare that a book will so totally capture my attention - I found myself thinking about the characters while performing the mundane details of my own life. I was so absorbed in the story that I began to feel like Ziza, Ibla, Fiora, Madalene and the others had become my friends and family.
The Singing of Swans is a well researched book and I highly recommend it to everyone. You will be entertained and enriched by the history of a culture and time almost forgotten. Bravo Mary, This is a great book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reverence for life, April 27, 2008

By 

Beate R. Sigriddaughter "Beate Sigriddaughter" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Singing of Swans (Paperback)

I read Mary Saracino's novel, The Singing of the Swans, because one of her stories won the second Glass Woman Prize, a literary prize have I created for women writers.
I am impressed by the courage of both the author and the publisher to create a book that goes beyond the usually recommended writing formula of conflict to climax to resolution.
This is a braided story of women spanning two millennia, from pre-Christian ancient Rome to contemporary Chicago and Sicily. The writing made me feel at home in the different eras, satisfying some of the longing I have as a woman to have our women's story told, which is not a the typical history of worship of war and death, oppression and domination, but a story of reverence for life and stewardship of life. I was especially impressed with both the boldness and the restraint with which some of the atrocities inflicted on women were treated in the text.
On a personal note, and a tribute to the author's craft, I had a chill go down my spine two sentences before the protagonist of the moment had a chill go up her spine.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in goddess lore and women's stories from a woman's perspective, and I look forward to Mary Saracino's future work.