Sacred Hearts

by Sarah Dunant

1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara, and the convent of Santa Caterina is filled with noble women who are married to Christ because many cannot find husbands outside. Enter sixteen-year-old Serafina, ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, howling with rage and hormones and determined to escape. While on the other side of the great walls, counter-reformation forces in the Church are pushing for change, inside, Serafina's spirit and defiance ignite a fire that threatens to engulf the whole convent. SACRED HEARTS is a novel about power, creativity and passion - both of the body and of the soul. Hidden history brought alive by a wonderful storyteller, renowned for her Italian Renaissance novels.

• ISBN10: 1844085961
• ISBN13: 9781844085965
• Publish Date: 25 June 2009
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 January 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Virago Press Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

I had a difficult time staying focused on this one. It takes place in a 16th century Italian convent, so I wasn't exactly expecting it to move swiftly, but I did think that the more interesting convent politics could have been introduced earlier. Sarah Dunant uses the Counter-Reformation as the backdrop for her story about a young woman who is unwillingly sent to the convent. It's clear that Dunant spent quite a bit of time researching what life would have been like for the nuns during this time period, and the details are what keep the first half of the book from being generic and dull. I would recommend this one mainly to anyone who has a special interest in the topic or time period.