Sacred Time

By Ursula Hegi

Book Overview

The bestselling author of Stones from the River delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet -- the unforgettable story of an endearing, but also flawed, Italian American family. In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo's world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parents' Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium -- and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm's family. Malcolm is in jail for stealing -- once again -- from his latest new job, and Anthony's aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos' fifth-floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony's life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member's life forever. Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family -- and its gracefulness -- Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood's tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Ultimately she reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations. With gravity and poise, Hegi turns her astute yet forgiving eye on the essential frailty and dignity of the human condition in this elegant and fast-paced novel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743255992
• ISBN13: 9780743255998
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Scared Time: A Novel

Came quickly in good condition. I was notified by ther seller when it was shipped.

I Totally Agree with Donna!

I had to review this book because I could not believe how bad the customer ratings were. This was one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read all year and I think others should read it as well. Please disregard the bad reviews and give it a try, it will be well worth your time.

elegantly simple and triumphantly natural

Ursula Hegi opens her novel Sacred Time with deceptive simplicity: the first paragraph contains only one sentence, "That winter of 1953, stenciled glass-wax decorations appeared on nearly every window in the Bronx, and Uncle Malcolm was sent to jail for stealing stamps and office equipment from his last new job." The same bare elegance runs throughout, somehow creating a subtly complex and motivated story out of clear, uncomplicated prose. The novel has the impact that it does because Hegi selects the perfect words, constructs layers of rich atmosphere, and forces the reader to fill in not only sundry details, but major plot points as well--she tends not to finish one subplot until long after several new ones have started, which results in a novel that is truer to life than the books whose chapters each contain a perfect capsule of introduction, rising action, climax, and dénouement.A novel that spans three generations and two continents could easily become stretched, with too few delightful specifics and too many underdeveloped story lines. Hegi does a good job, however, of making Sacred Time fill out its expansive framework, partly by letting all the stories grow naturally out of previously-recounted events. Her multiple narrators echo each other in their own words, and stories that are only hinted at in some chapters burst into full and satisfying bloom in later sections. By combining this intriguing structure with effortless prose and delicious details, Ursula Hegi creates in Sacred Time a novel that is as compelling as it is thought-provoking. At under 250 pages, Sacred Time is a fairly quick read, but make sure to have some cannelloni or calzones on hand before you start, because it will be as hard to resist your cravings for the traditional Italian fare that appears throughout as it will be impossible to put the book down before reading the last, triumphant sentence.