The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

Description

‘You don’t read this book, you live it’ Erin Kelly

Over a hundred years ago, in a mountainside village in Calabria, Italy, from a union between two young people with little to their names, a baby was born. Beautiful and adored by her mother, baby Mariastella Fortuna -known as Stella – seemed promised a happy destiny. But if Stella Fortuna means ‘lucky star,’ then life must have a funny sense of humour.

Everybody in the Fortuna family knows the story of how Stella, once the most beautiful girl in the village of Ievoli, the unconventional, fiercely independent young woman who refused to learn to cook and who swore she would never marry, has escaped death time and time again. From her childhood in Italy, to her adulthood in America, death has seemed to pursue Stella. She has been burned, eviscerated and bludgeoned; she has choked, nearly fallen out of a window, and on one occasion, her life was only saved by a typo.

However, even the best-known stories still have secrets to reveal . . . and even after a century, Stella’s is no exception. No woman survives seven or eight deaths without a reason. So, how did she? In a tale which spans nine decades, two continents, and one family’s darkest, deepest-buried truths, the answer awaits. . .

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‘A sweeping story of immigration, family, betrayal and most importantly, one extraordinary woman. This book is gorgeous, harrowing and magical’ Julie Cohen

‘Fresh and intriguing’ Sabine Durrant

‘This is wonderful storytelling, seamlessly capturing the love and horror at the heart of family. Juliet Grames’s novel . . . sits the reader down at a well-laden table, and offers a hugely satisfying feast. Delightful’ Mick Herron

‘A beautifully painted portrait, majestic and masterful; a very fine novel indeed’ Laura Carlin