The Mountain Girl

By Margo Peller Feeley

On a stormy night in 1661, three characters almost meet at a Benedictine monastery in Tuscany. Mario, a miller turned tramp, hopes for a meal from the holy sisters on his way home from prison, where he has served a sentence for heresy. He's turned away, for the nuns are busy tending to a former abbess, Benedetta, also to be released from prison--by death. On her way to join them is Lorenza, a young woman from the same mountain village as Benedetta. She has grown up on legends about the "Child of Grace," who became a mystic and figure of considerable power, legends which console her for having to become a nun. She even hopes to meet Benedetta, but the death coincides with her arrival--and it is a death shrouded in mystery.When Lorenza discovers Benedetta's secret diary, she also discovers a new Benedetta. Her simple faith doesn't know what to make of the entries, full of erotic and masochistic fantasies. Or were they fantasies? Was Benedetta a saint, a sinner, a fraud, a madwoman, a witch? With these questions to divert and engage her, Lorenza gradually becomes used to convent life. Scenes from her absorbing daily life alternate with readings from the diary and scenes from Mario's life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514284952
• ISBN13: 9781514284957
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"