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Cosima

Short description: "Cosima" tells the story of an aspiring writer growing up in Nuoro, Sardinia during the last decades of the nineteenth century when formal education for women was rare and literary careers unheard-of. Based on Deledda’s own life, the work describes a young woman’s struggle against the dismay and disapproval of her family and friends at her creative ambitions. Yet it also reads like a charming fable with details of family life, rural traditions and wild bandits, and it is as much a novel of memory as of character or action. Deledda’s characters are poor country folk driven by some predetermined force. Their loves are tragic, their lives as hard and as rigidly controlled as nature itself in the hills of Sardinia. Deledda creates memorable figures who play out their lives against this backdrop of mountains and bare plains, sheepfolds and vineyards. Shimmering in the distance is the sea and escape — for a few — to the Continent or America. In 1926 Grazia Deledda became the second woman and the second Italian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. She wrote thirty-three novels, including "Reeds in the Wind," and many books of short stories, almost all set on Sardinia. Her work has become well known to English-speaking readers through Martha King’s translations for Italica Press.

Paperback: 140 pages

Publisher: Italica Press; First Edition edition (September 29, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0934977062

ISBN-13: 978-0934977067

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #843,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #108 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > European > Italian #27281 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary #43086 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

I was so fortunate to have been told about this book by a friend who grew up in Sardinia (Sardegna), Italy. The Sards are a unique people with a reputation for a wild, almost primitive history but they are certainly not uncivilized.Grazia Deledda won the Nobel Prize for her works and I have to say that there are passages in this book, "Cosima", that are nothing but transcendent in beauty, absolutely sublime in their effect on the reader. Perhaps one of the most memorable and stunning books I have ever read for its genius, its beauty, in its description of the wild in the interior of this Island, for example, the author is practically unknown to American or English language readers.

This is a beautifully written literary novel about a young girl growing up in Sardinia at the end of the 1800s. Cosima is Grazia Deladda's middle name. The imaginary and fantasy whims of childhood are well described. Social history of Sardinia is in the background of this novel. Sheepherders and writers are among the characters along with Cosima's family. Cosima succeeds as a writer while her family is pushing for an appropriate marriage.

The story of Cosima embedded in a world of mystery, superstition and innocence. Lovingly evokes the perspective of a creative young girl trying to make sense of a traditional and confining family and community.

Cosima