Orphan of the Olive Tree

By Mirella Sichirollo Patzer

In medieval Tuscany, one woman's lie will divide two families. Another woman's fear will condemn her own daughter to grow up without a name.

Thirteenth-century Tuscany. Two neighboring families are bound by friendship, honor, and a promise meant to unite their children for generations to come.

Felicia Ventura has longed for only one thing: a family of her own. When she finally gives birth to twin sons, her happiness should be complete. Instead, an old superstition, given dangerous life by the envious Prudenza Benevento, ignites a scandal that threatens Felicia's marriage, her reputation, and everything she has fought to build.

Then Prudenza gives birth to twins of her own.

Terrified that the same suspicion she turned against Felicia will now fall upon her, Prudenza makes an unforgivable choice. One daughter remains at Villa Bianca. The other is carried away and left beneath an olive tree near a Benedictine monastery outside Siena, wrapped in fine brocade with a mysterious ring as the only clue to the family that abandoned her.

Eighteen years later, that child has become Olivia, an accomplished young woman who knows neither her true name nor her blood. Raised among the women of the monastery, she has known love, learning, and belonging, yet the question of where she came from has never released its hold upon her.

When Olivia steps beyond the world that raised her, she is drawn unknowingly into the lives of the very families whose choices determined her fate.

Old promises begin to fracture. Buried lies rise again. Mothers and daughters are forced to confront what love, loyalty, and belonging truly mean, while a truth concealed for nearly two decades threatens everything two families believed safely buried.

Set amid the olive groves, villas, monasteries, and stone streets of medieval Tuscany, Orphan of the Olive Tree is a sweeping historical family saga of mothers and daughters, jealousy and betrayal, hidden identity, female resilience, and the devastating consequences of allowing fear to decide another person's life.

For readers who love atmospheric Italian historical fiction, powerful family secrets, morally complex women, multigenerational sagas, and stories in which the past refuses to remain buried.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1998169626
• ISBN13: 9781998169627
• Release Date: August 2012
• Publisher: History and Women Press
• Length: 526 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"