Sacred Hearts: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)

I could not put this book down! It was absolutely fantastic!!! I look forward to reading it again!

From THE NUN'S STORY to IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE, from BLACK NARCISSUS to MARIETTE IN ECSTASY, novels about nuns have been an enthusiasm of mine since girlhood. The spare, contemplative life of the convent, the "marriage" to Christ, the drama of doubt and temptation: All this was inconceivably romantic to someone raised without a drop of religion. Although I hadn't yet experienced love or sex --- those mysterious objects of desire still hung in the misty, hypothetical future --- I was fascinated by the decision to forgo them entirely. It seemed enviably pure. Pure is not the word that comes to mind when the reader is introduced to the sisters in SACRED HEARTS, the third of Sarah Dunant's wonderful historical novels (her previous two took place in Florence and Venice; this one in Ferrara) --- they are altogether more worldly souls. In the late 16th century, it seems, extraordinary faith was not a prerequisite for taking vows; often nuns were women who were simply losers in the marriage market. Perhaps they suffered from physical disabilities (cleft lip, twisted spine), or they were from families that couldn't afford to see them properly wed (in an Author's Note we learn that dowries had become so inflated that by 1600 nearly half of Italian noblewomen were destined to become nuns!). Although some convents at the time were humble affairs, Santa Caterina, the fictional setting for SACRED HEARTS, is hardly a closed-off spiritual enclave. One nun has a pet dog; others write plays and compose choral music; all are able, on designated occasions, to meet face-to-face with family.Their cells, often containing such amenities as books, carpets and satin sheets, are cleaned by lay servants. The community is a business entity, producing and trading in illuminated manuscripts and painted religious figurines, herbal medicines and embroidered church robes, as well as a political one, competing with other convents to win patronage and fame. Suora Zuana, the dispensary mistress --- the closest thing Santa Catarina has to a doctor --- makes the ironic point that women are often better off within the convent than they would be in the outside world: "[T]here are no fathers to bully or rage at the expensive uselessness of daughters, no brothers to tease and torment weaker sisters, no rutting drunken husbands poking constantly at tired or pious wives." And in the remarkably democratic institution of the chapter meeting, each nun "has a voice and a vote" on everything from what they will eat to whom they will have as Abbess. The daughter of an enlightened medical man whose sudden death left her nowhere else to go, Zuana is essentially a scientist plopped down in the middle of a religious community. For 16 years she has wrestled with the demands of faith and her own conscience, although she has also found a certain tranquility at Santa Caterina. She is the person the reader will most identify with: open-minded, self-doubting, curious, caring and practical --- a modern

Dunant immerses her reader in 16th century Ferraro, in the convent of Santa Caterina, where devoted nuns spend their days in work, prayer and song, isolated from the temptations of the world. Holiness perfumes the halls of this convent, a group of woman dedicating their lives to the service of God. One would assume the usual human troubles have no place in God's house, but behind the thick walls and locked iron gates of Santa Caterina, human failings intrude on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the Council of Trent moves to further separate the nuns from the outside, fearing contamination from the world. While the abbess, Madonna Chiara, weighs the implications of the Counter-Reformation and interfaces with life outside the convent, other personalities dominate convent life in Renaissance Italy: the fierce mistress of novices, Suora Umiliana, who heartily believes that starving the body will bring the soul closer to God; Suora Zuana, a healer whose herbs bring comfort to ailing nuns; Suora Magdalena, who is visited by visions in her humble cell; and Suora Perseveranza, who espouses "the music of suffering". All of these characters are impacted by the new novice who wails against her fate. Serafina resists her imprisonment in the insular world of convent life, a pawn of fortune and her father's will. Suora Zuana attempts to comfort the grieving novice, touched by Sarafina's palpable despair. As in her previous novels, Dunant doesn't disappoint, breathing life in to 16th century Italy behind thick convents walls. In Santa Caterina, even the holy nuns cannot escape their flaws, exacerbated by the tortured days of the reluctant novice, who suffers the unimaginable torments of her isolation from the world and the man she loves. Even in the realm of the sacred, temptation insinuates itself, ambition to be closest to God, to experience the exhilaration of pain. The prayers, hymns, incense and yearning for God are tangible. All the more painful for the healer, Suora Zuana, to question her conscience, her own precious serenity at risk by the actions she considers. Sacred Hearts is all the more powerful for its sense of isolation, a separateness from the world and the subtle balance between pride and humility that is integral to such a vocation, interior struggles all the more intense for the imposed silence and watchful eyes of others. Dunant has an exceptional ability to translate such an existence, to make familiar the daily offices of prayer, small sacrifices and the quest to be one with God. This is a rare and beautifully wrought tale of exquisite intelligence, the private landscape of the soul and the permutations of choice in the religious life. In the holiest of places, the sacred territory between the promises of heaven and the joys of the earth, prayers are answered. Luan Gaines/2009.

Could there be a more lyrical writer than Sarah Dunant? In her first historical novel, The Birth of Venus, I was swept away into the world of the Italian Renaissance and Savonarola. Now, with Sacred Hearts, Dunant returns to Italy in the 1500s to tell the story of a passionate young woman forced into a convent against her will. She has been separated from the man she loves by a father who places her in the convent of Santa Caterina. While most readers might think that this was the end of this young girl's life, it is actually only the beginning. For it is in this convent that Serafina, the protagonist, becomes a woman and learns who she truly is. The novel has all of the ingredients of an epic tale - long lost love, religious quarrels, attempted escapes and, no surprise here, the prerequisite herbalist which features in so many historical tales. The writing is beautiful, and the author allows the reader a glimpse into a shuttered world where many, many women spent their lives because their fathers either wouldn't or couldn't afford a dowry for them to marry. Very well done and highly recommended.

I expected a book about sixteenth century convent life and its nuns to be boring. What I did not expect was Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant her third (and probably her best) novel set in the Italian Renaissance (following In the Company of a Courtesan and The Birth of Venus). I was instantly captivated by the sisters of Santa Caterina, a fictional convent comprised of a group of highly sophisticated women as embroiled in politics, scandal, and deception as their courtly counterparts. Dunant achieves for nuns what Ken Follett did for monks in his epic Pillars of the Earth. This novel opens with the newest novice sixteen-year-old former noble, Serafina. More rebellious teen then a dutiful daughter, Serafina is too expensive and too much of a liability to marry off, so she is passed over in favor of her younger sister, and forced to take the veil. (This practice Dunant notes is very common though cruel). Serafina is highly valued to the convent both for her beautiful singing voice, and the generous dowry her family has promised. However the only vow Serfina makes is to herself--promising to escape at her earliest opportunity. Serafina is contrasted with Zuana, a once defiant and now compliant nun. Zuana takes Serafina under her wing to try and ease Serafina's transition from court to convent. Both women soon become embroiled in the shifting alliances of the convent and rapidly changing religious atmosphere which could forever alter Santa Caterina as they know it. Dunant's sumptuous rendition bestows life into the convent and the time. The setting becomes an examination for the roles of women. The convent offered a surprising amount of freedom and protection for those within its walls--a truth which Dunant does not fail to capture. The plot is secondary to the historical context of the book, but still remains engaging. The only disappointment is the story's ending which not only borders on blaspheme but also seems out of the character for the women as the reader knows them. And so, I'll be recommending it to everyone except my intensely Catholic grandmother. Still, Sacred Hearts is an obviously well researched and breath-taking work of Historical Fiction.

Fans of Sarah Dunant will not be disappointed! Like Dunant's Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, earlier works in what now is her trilogy of historical novels, Sacred Hearts has authentic roots in the Italian Renaissance. And it's a page-turner, a meticulously crafted story of love and devotion. Via a convent full of compelling female characters, Dunant cuts right to the soul of human relationships as we continue to interrogate them today. Dunant's young heroine, Serafina, is determined to escape the convent where she has been placed against her will. Through Serafina's struggles Dunant reveals the transformative powers not only of prayer but also of art, music, and medicine. She invites us to distinguish true spirituality from the threat of a rigid and dehumanizing fanaticism; to appreciate the vibrant life of women who refuse simply to obey; and to know both the ecstatic joy of song and the wondrous gifts of science. Rich with details that enable us to see, hear, and taste the city of Ferrara in the 16th century, Sacred Hearts is a big story with multiple marvelous crescendos.