Casa Rossa

by Francesca Marciano

Book Overview

A crumbling farmhouse in Puglia, Casa Rossa was bought by Alina Strada's grandfather at a time when no one else wanted it. Now busy preparing it for sale, Alina endeavors to recover the memories it... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375421238
• ISBN13: 9780375421235
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Artful, real and eloquently told story about being the younger sister

This book is fluid and readable and yet complex in how the story reveals itself one thread at a time---not always in sequence. Marciano is an extremely intelligent and insightful writer who is a master at building tension and subtext into a scene and at revealing the dimensions of human psychology. It is a universal story about sisters and how deeply that bond inspires us and at times criples us. It is the story of 2 sisters surviving a dysfunctional family: one crumbles as an adult while the other does not-- but instead, learns to process it, make art from it and live beyond it (healing seems too simplistic a word). It is a story that takes place in Italy but it is a story that could have taken place anywhere.

Italian Secrets

A unique blend of page-turning drama with thoughful prose that makes the reader want to linger over the words. The varied plots about family secrets, political unrest, unfulfilled yearnings and an insider's view of Italy are skillfully woven into an enchanting tapestry. CASA ROSSA left this reader eager to visit Italy. Even before I finished this novel, I went out and bought the author's other novel.

Beautifully evoked flavors of Italy in the 1970s-80s.

Marciano's book is absorbing and works beautifully on two levels: a story of multiple generations of women in which one comes to care about the characters, and an evocation of Italy during two decades of turmoil, including terrorism. I learned a lot about Italy reading this book, because interwoven among the fictional threads of the plot are glimpses of Italy's social realities: the division between North and South, for example. About one-third of the way through, this book just "took off" and I couldn't stop reading; it surpasses 'Rules of the Wild' which I also enjoyed, having lived in Kenya for a while.

gripping saga, powerful women, beautiful Puglia

I loved Rules of the Wild, with its witty and incisive look at European expatriates in East Africa but I was totally unprepared for Casa Rossa. It is a very ambitious book. A gripping saga of a southern Italian family, it spans 3 generations, and would be a great book just for the ride, Paris in the '20, giddy Rome in the'50s (cinecitta, paparazzis), Italy under the dark influence of terrorism in the '70s, all anchored by the family old house in beautiful, hot Puglia. At the core of the story is the complex relationship between a mother and two daughters, their family secrets, the transformation of family history as it is passed down.These are strong, funny, at times terrifying women. What an exciting, wonderful book...

Fabulous Saga

Ms. Marciano has really outdone herself for her second novel, which is as interesting as her first book, Rules of the Wild, but has a much more sophisticated storyline - plus the plot is much more intertwined. A truly fantastic second book which reveals a lot about the Red Brigade and a obviously very troubled time in Italy's history. My only complaint is with the cover, which I feel does the book an injustice by intimating that the book will be a fluffy girls' story and not the interesting and complicated novel that it is.