A local author has drawn on her experiences of growing up as part of the Italian community in St Albans in her debut novel.
Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia is a historical fiction novel and begins in the mountains of post-Second World War Italy. At an orphanage, protagonist Elisabetta claims to see the Madonna and draws crowds to witness her miracles, but her only friend Adelina has doubts. The consequences will last a lifetime and transport the reader to St Albans in the 1950s-1990s, including the psychiatric hospitals which encircled the city.
Anna was born and raised in St Albans, and was keen to capture her upbringing in the novel. Her story explores what it was like for underrepresented women who had to build new lives.
Anna told STALBANSnews: “My parents left Italy in the mid-1950s in search of a better life. They came to St Albans to work on Windridge Farm. I was born at St Albans City Hospital and grew up as part of a sizeable Italian community in St Albans, with Italian school and Italian Mass, attending the Catholic schools of St Alban & St Stephen Primary School and Loreto College.
“I wanted to reflect a little of this Italian way of life in St Albans – what it was like to be a woman who has left behind her family of origin, her language and way of life, and to start afresh. The main character ends up working from the 1950s at one of the psychiatric hospitals which encircled St Albans and tells of a family life which takes in going to St Albans market and the old Carnegie library on Victoria Street.”
Broken Madonna is available to buy from Amazon and to order from bookshops. For more information, visit www.annalucia.co.uk
0 Comments