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    Sacred Hearts: A Novel
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    Sacred Hearts: A Novel
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    Sacred Hearts: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    Sacred Hearts: A Novel

    Written by Sarah Dunant

    Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God's protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force.

    The sixteen-year-old daughter of a noble family from Milan, Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant-young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl's cell to sedate her.

    As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess's job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of oppression.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 14, 2009
    ISBN9780739325094
    Unavailable
    Sacred Hearts: A Novel
    Author

    Sarah Dunant

    SARAH DUNANT is the author of the international bestsellers The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan, Sacred Hearts and Blood and Beauty (her first look at the Borgia family), which have received major acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Her earlier novels include three Hannah Wolfe crime thrillers, as well as Snowstorms in a Hot Climate, Transgressions and Mapping the Edge. She has two daughters and lives in London and Florence.

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    Reviews for Sacred Hearts

    4/5

    550 ratings93 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I was so looking forward to this book as I loved her last 2, but this was pretty boring! Way too much info on convent life, too little about anything else. It was interesting, but only for so long.
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was very well written,I had selected it because I had seen it recommended on the waterstones website and had really enjoyed The Birth Of Venus. I felt that she really gave you a good insight into what life was like for women in the 16th century and what life was like in a convent then.

      What I learned from this book is that I'm really glad I wasn't a woman in 16th century Italy,or anywhere else for that matter as I don't suppose the situation was any better for women in the rest of the world.

      Basically it all boils down to you are my daughter therefore you are my property and I can do what I like,if that means marrying you to the most hideous man available or forcing you into a convent then that is the way it's going to be.
    • 4/5
      I have never yet been disappointed by Sarah Dunant's richly drawn, impeccably researched historical fiction, and Sacred Hearts was no exception. There is SO much detail it feels like being enveloped in the cloistered life as soon as the reader opens the first page. Dunant sets the stage methodically through the first sections of the book, with the end picking up steam and reaching an extremely satisfying climax. Really great historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      Set in an Italian convent during the Reformation. Interesting characters, structure of convents, why women entered the convents, etc.
    • 4/5
      Religion is very personal, and, very volatile. This book opened my eyes further to the religious orders of the 16th century. While the story is fictional, Dunant researched the book well, and wove a tale that could be believed to occur, or at least in some aspects, should have. The reality is clear enough - some of it difficult to digest. It is, however a nice balance.
      I enjoyed reading this book, although it is an advance reader's edition and I found a few typos; which I don't think I've ever encountered.
    • 4/5
      This novel grows on you. It takes place completely inside the convent of Saint Catarina in 1570.At times it moves somewhat slowly and is top heavy with religious language. Still, it draws you in and paints such a lovely, detailed picture of convent life that I found quite intriguing. I just had to keep reading. This is the strength of Sarah Dunant's writing.
    • 4/5
      So many layers, intricate and thought provoking.
    • 3/5
      Closer to 3.5 stars. This story was slow and tedious. It was a solid 3 until the last 100 pages or so when it finally began to pick-up and become interesting.
    • 4/5
      I read this book a while ago and remember enjoying it.
    • 3/5
      Possibly if I hadn't had a thick head, I might have enjoyed this more, but a stinking cold and a book that's quite dense and intricate is probably not the best combination. Before going too much further, it is worth noting that at this time the dowry a young woman was expected to bring with her meant that for many families they could only afford to marry one daughter to a family of suitable status, any others were offered to the church as a nun - not always by their choice. Set in an Italian nunnery in the late 1500s, this is the story of two women; Zuana was a reluctant nun, but in the 16 years since her entry into the convent, she's herself a niche as the dispensary mistress and Serafina, who was not chosen for marriage by the eligible bachelor, but was not allowed to marry the singing teacher (not of sufficient status) and hence has been forced into the nunnery by her family. She causes uproar in the convent from the first, and her presence acts as a catalyst for the internal politics in the nunnery. The resolution is maybe a little far-fetched, but does satisfactorily tie up all the strands of the story. I suspect I might have liked this better had I not been on a deadline to read it and had a clearer head (I kept getting some of the names mixed up in my head)
    • 5/5
      I have always been intrigued by the somewhat mystical world of the Catholic church, and the lives of nuns, and so Sarah Dunant delivers in Sacred Hearts. Both Serafina and Zuana are incredibly strong, smart women who find their places amid the turbulent and severely patriarchal Renaissance times. Dunant manages to make the world of the convent come alive, connecting the world then to now in the friendships, gossip and drama that comes with living with only women. It really is a wonderfully told story, multifaceted and passionate in only a way that Sarah Dunant can deliver.
    • 5/5
      This book was definitely a page-turner. At a time when respectable women had few choices, this book spins a tale of intrique and acceptance. You will find yourself caring about the characters and worrying for them as they set about their complicated and yet simple, lives.
    • 5/5
      I think this book is worth reading. It seems to be a pretty accurate description of a convent life, and at the same time it tells an interesting story with unique characters. Most of all I liked Suora Zuana and Madonna Chiara. Both have very interesting personalities. On the other hand, Serafina, the main character of the novel, is quite off-putting despite being beautiful and having a heavenly voice. However, her personality is very believable as well. What I didn't like in this book is the ending. It's too happy for those who doesn't deserve it and vice versa.
    • 4/5
      This is an interesting book, its a story of a 16th century convent which turns out to be a time of immense change.It explains that it was a time when daughters went to convents not due to religious bents but due to nowhere else for them to go.In fact, it shows that often these women were freer and more liberated than those who married and lived in society.The book paces well and tells the history in a story like manner.I would recommend for those who like historical novels.
    • 3/5
      I'm sure that many people would love this book, as it's a richly detailed story of convent life in 16thC Italy, considering whether it is a place of refuge where women have freedom or prison for unwanted daughter. Not really my thing though.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book by Sarah Dunant. Having read The Red Tent and The Birth of Venus, I had great expectations of her writing and I was not disappointed. Learning about the life of nuns in the 16th century was very interesting, how society gave them few choices in life and that a convent was high on that list of "choices", for many of the women/girls there it was not really a choice at all. Any reader of women's history should take the time to read this book.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story which centers around three very different, but equally strong women. Suora Zuana the dispensary mistress, Abbess Chiara, and sixteen-year-old Serafina who has been ripped by her family from the man she loves and forced into the Italian convent of Santa Caterina. The price of wedding dowries had risen so sharply within Catholic Europe that most noble families could not afford to marry off more than one daughter. The remaining young women were dispatched, for a much lesser price, to convents. Historians estimate that up to half of all noblewomen became nuns. Not all of them went willingly...The story takes place in the northern Italian city of Ferrara in 1570, in the convent of Santa Caterina.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book! Well written. Young girl thrown in a convent against her will in 1570. She was in love with a young man and her father decided she belonged in the convent. She totally rebels. Then a miracle happens to her and she reqlinquishes her will
    • 4/5
      Excellent story of a convent beset by someone who absolutely does not belong there.
    • 4/5
      When a particularly defiant novice, Serafina, is forced to join the convent of Santa Caterina, dispensary mistress Suora Zuana is sent to sedate her. Thus begins a friendship between two women living in a 16th century Italian convent. The descriptions of daily life are exquisitely detailed and often painfully direct. One of Dunant's greatest talents is her ability to create multifaceted female characters who remained rooted in the time period in which they live, not anachronistically updated to fit contemporary sensibilities. If you enjoyed Dunant's other historical novels, you'll probably like this one. I did.
    • 4/5
      Sarah Dunant likes to show the inside of Renaissance convents. She says that by 1600, with the price of dowries risen so high, half of the women of Ferrera Italy were consigned to convents which, alas, by that time were becoming more and more restrictive. The book follows the lives of some of the nuns, most of whom have not chosen to be there. It could have been very depressing, but was instead a clever tale of women figuring out how to work within limitations.
    • 4/5
      Sacred Hearts, by Sarah DunantBy the time you finish reading the first few pages of Sarah Dunant's recent historical novel (her third), you will be swept into the intricate microcosm of a 16th century convent in northern Italy. Night has fallen at Santa Catarina, and the usual hush that blankets the damp stone cells of the dormitory has been broken by the echo of frenzied screams emanating from a 16-year old girl who has been forced into the convent against her will. Young Sarafina is outraged at her involuntary internment, and her ragged wailing has begun to wear on the holy sisters, who depend upon a precious span of sleep before being routed from their slumber at 1 a.m. for the office of Matins. Something must be done, and Suara (Sister) Zoana, the resident apothecary mistress, decides to break her vow of nocturnal isolation; she slips down the long stone hall to dispense a dram of poppy syrup to Sarafina. The poor girl is so miserable and desperate that Suara Zoana breaks nighttime protocol and verbally comforts Sarafina as the drug takes effect. An empathetic bond forms that night which will alter the course of both their lives and the future of Santa Catarina.Zoana herself was not a willing postulant when she entered the gates of Santa Catarina 16 years before as a recently orphaned young girl, and her involuntary marriage to Christ was not an unusual one. Even wealthy fathers could not always pay the exorbitant dowry rates required for multiple daughters during the 16th century, and Santa Catarina provided a respectable, lifelong warehouse for such girls at a fraction of the dowry cost. These daughters, along with handicapped, ugly, or otherwise unmarriageable women, frequently took their place beside the devout in the convent community with no hope of an alternative future.Dunant explores the complex social and psychological implications of living in a permanently closed community of women. Although girls possessing an intelligent and strong-headed personality tended to resist assimilation the most, they were the very ones who often benefited from a cloistered society that relied upon them to write, manufacture goods, compose music, balance financial accounts, mix and dispense medicine, and participate in governing a community in the absence of men. The virginal holy sisters lived longer than their secular counterparts, who were subjected to sexual diseases, drunken advances, and serial pregnancies at the whim of their husbands, but they were also doomed to watch their youthful energy and desire slowly evaporate into withered old age without the benefit of children or the happier aspects of conjugal life.Dunant has filled the book with historical information. The reader learns about Italian city state politics, the delicate dance between the convent and its main benefactors, the forces fueling the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the raucous rituals of Winter Carnival, and much, much more. Dunant's ability to draw the reader into history with specific sensory descriptions makes all of this "learning" delightfully painless. Nuns, giddy with the high spirits of Winter Carnival, toss a shower of dried rose petals over the convent wall onto a gathering of bawdy serenading boys, inciting a near riot (nuns gone wild!); one nun who happens to be the daughter of Santa Catarina's richest benefactor powders her face, lines her nun's habit with colorful, rich silks and tests just how far she can let her newest hairstyle escape her wimple before being chastised; local citizens are titillated when Santa Catarina's annual orchestral concert features wind instruments (the holy sisters grip their lips around the mouthpieces and blow -- shocking!).The sensory richness of Sacred Hearts combines with a great story line (there's romance and suspense I haven't gotten into) and memorable, complex characters to make an outstanding work of historical fiction. One of my favorite narrators, Rosalyn Landor, is featured in the audio edition of this novel. Her rich, articulate voice pairs perfectly with the tone and mood of the book.
    • 5/5
      This is great book. According to the cover it is the story of how a young woman shakes the convent she enters unwillingly. While that is true it is not the whole story here. I found this to be a book about relationships between women more than the forbidden love that put Serafina in the convent to begin with. In fact even the relationship between Serafina and Zuana (which according to the cover is a mother/daughter relationship) is not the true heart of the story, but the evolution of Soura Zuana from unimportant in convent politics and dynamics to a central position. Yes, convent politics... it might sound dull(it did to me at first) but it isn't. It's anything but dull. These women live in a "state" of their own as Zuana herself says, run by the Abbess Madonna Chiara. Within the walls of Santa Caterina they are all nuns, all forgotten women, yet they are seperated by social class, skills, and even power factions. Into this comes Serafina who without knowing it cannot help but stir the embers into a raging fire. From a more personal perspective I found myself pulled through most of the reading between the relationship of Zuana and Serafina, and Zuana and Madonna Chiara, it was a strange triangle I pick up early on and that did play a big role on the unfolding of the story. I found this triangle the most engaging part of the book. Beyond Serafina's rebellion and her angelic voice, there is Zuana and Madonna Chiara pay close attention to them as you read. It satisfied the Catholic in me, the historian in me, and even the political scientist in me (my Gender politics teacher should have used this illustrate women in power!).
    • 5/5
      Wonderful to read this so soon after teaching Teresa of Avila last quarter. Wish I'd told my students to read it.
    • 4/5
      I really like a good historical fiction novel where it's evident that the author has put a lot of research into his/her writing, and such is the case with Sarah Dunant. She does know how to capture the period and draw the reader in. As in her previous novels, the writing in this one is very good & I enjoyed this story, but I have to admit that I did find it a bit slow moving. If you're looking for a novel with lots of action, this may not be the one for you, but if you're satisfied with rich descriptive period novels with a subtle mysterious element, this one should fit the bill.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the most unique books I've ever read. Have never read anything like this and don't expect I ever will again. It is set in the convent of Santa Caterina in Ferrara, Italy in the year 1570.The main character is Suara Zuana, the nun in charge of the dispensary and the infirmary. She became a nun after her father died, the father who had taught her medicine. There was no place else for her to go, and she entered with some rebelliousness in her heart. In the seventeen years since, she has become resigned and even grateful. Yet when a novice enters who is hysterical with her grief at being parted from her love, and rebellious, she is sympathetic. What follows upends the convent.The author in a note reveals that at the time, in Italy, dowries had gotten so high that noble families married as few of their daughters as possible. The rest were forced into nunneries.Dunant shows us this world, where there are almost no contact with men, where some women immersed themselves in the piety, that included services throughout the day so there was always a shortage of sleep, and others found some way to reconcile them with the life they were forced into. The special few become mystics.It is an odd book in that we are so used books and visual media where non-stop action has become the default. It makes it hard to adjust to the pacing of this book. However, once one adjusts to it, one is immersed in a world long past and far removed from today's life. It won't be to all tastes, but it is a powerful book that I was happy to have read.
    • 5/5
      Upon beginning Sacred Hearts: A Novel, I didn't imagine that I'd find myself completely wrapped up in this story about an Italian convent in the 1500s, but I absolutely was. Sacred Hearts focuses on a period of time during which dowries were so high that families were perhaps only able to afford to marry off one daughter, and the other or others would be placed in a convent. Serafina is one of these young women, who has been placed into the convent of Santa Caterina against her will. She has arrived at the convent after an unapproved love affair and her story is full of all the passion of youth and young love. Her anger and grief are overwhelming when she finds herself suddenly living in what is essentially, a prison. One of the sisters, Suora Zuana, is touched by Serafina and attempts to make her more comfortable as she adapts to convent life. Zuana is a fascinating character and much of the story is told from her perspective. Thanks to her father, Zuana is knowledgeable about diseases and cures and her work at the convent is as the dispensary mistress, sort of a combination of physician, nurse, and pharmacist.Sarah Dunant has created an amazing world within the pages of Sacred Hearts. As a reader, I felt so powerfully the sense of isolation these women must have felt, living in the middle of a city but unable to see outside the walls of the convent. Just as in the world of a convent, there are no men that even speak in this book besides a few words from the bishop. Because of all this, I felt almost as a voyeur, being able to see inside the world of these nuns. For some the convent seems a prison, at least at first. For others, the convent serves as a refuge, the only place to go once they are released from an unhappy life. For a few, they came to the convent because they were called. I enjoyed this book very much, and then I heard a story that made me appreciate it even more. There is a woman that I work with that I often discuss books with. I was telling her about this book and when I finished she told me that it sounded like her mother's life who grew up in the 1950s. It was tradition in her Catholic family that one child would be 'given' to the church and she was chosen by her mother perhaps because she was favored by her father. She stayed with the convent for a number of years, until she suffered an nervous breakdown because she was so unhappy. When she was finally able to leave the convent she was treated so terribly in her small town for the 'shameful' thing she had done she had to move away. Her life did have some happiness, but ultimately ended in tragedy, her daughter suspects from the guilt she felt from leaving the convent. All this to say, that throughout history, oftentimes women's lives were not their own to live, to make choices about, to enjoy.Many thanks to Librarything's Early Reviewer program for this review copy.
    • 5/5
      This book went from being a Possibly Do Not Finish to a Cannot Even Set Down in the space of some twenty pages, somewhere between pages 60 and 80. Before quitting, I checked some reviews, and decided I should keep going. I was so glad I did!This work of historical fiction takes place in 16th Century Italy, a time of turmoil and upheaval for the Roman Church, which was trying to stand firm against the winds blowing from the Protestant Reformation. The Church responded to the challenge by retreating further into orthodoxy. Nunneries struggled to maintain some autonomy as the Church threatened to make convents even more closed to the world than they already were. The political intrigues were fierce; the power of the Church was balanced by the power of many families who had girls in convents: those considered to be unmarriageable for whatever reason (including insufficient dowries) were sent to religious communities. In Sacred Hearts, Serafina is the name bestowed by the Benedictine order on a new sixteen-year-old novice who has been sent to the convent of Santa Caterina. Her father did not have enough money for a dowry for both Serafina and her sister. Serafina, although in love, had not made a lucrative match. Accordingly she was dispatched against her will to Santa Caterina. Inside the convent walls, Serafina is buffeted between the forces of Reform and of Counter-Reformation reflected in microcosm in Santa Caterina: the Abbess, Sister Chiara, wants to preserve some freedom for her charges, and the mistress of the novices (and Sister Chiara's rival), Sister Umiliana, is fighting for more piety through increased deprivation. Serafina is beautiful, sings like an angel, and is determined to get out of the convent somehow to be with her lover. Her struggles against her confinement awaken the suppressed longings of Sister Zuana, the convent dispensary mistress. Sister Zuana becomes Serafina's ally in her scheme to escape. Zuana, the only child of a professor of medicine, was forced to enter the convent when her father died, leaving her with no means of support on her own. Part of her adjustment to her own fate lay with the fact that inside Santa Caterina, she can practice medicine in a way that would have been totally impossible for a woman on the outside. Serafina becomes anorexic in an attempt to dull her psychic pain. Starving herself not only gives her control over her life, but it reduces her consciousness until she has the supreme comfort of feeling nothing. Sister Zuana, who feels empathy for Serafina's plight, is forbidden by the Abbess to interfere. Sister Umiliana wishes for Serafina to continue to fast and perhaps die in religious ecstasy, validating Sister Umiliana's vision of righteousness. As the story continues, we have no idea if Serafina will live or die. But Sister Zuana risks everything to help her.Evaluation: It is hard to imagine, but this 400-page book about convent life becomes a veritable page turner as the plot progresses. And you will be sad to see it end. If you begin this book and find it slow, stick it out: you will be richly rewarded. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      The third novel in her Italian Renaissance series, Sarah Dunant transported her readers into the everyday lives of nuns in her latest book, Sacred Hearts. Set in a convent in Northern Italy, Dunant continued her pristine historical writing through strong characters and women's quests to find freedom during a repressed era.The story centered on a young novice, Serafina, who entered the convent against her will. During 16th century Italy, the price of dowries was exorbinantly high, and families with more than one daughter often had to choose which one would get married. Serafina's sister was chosen for marriage, leaving the young woman to become a "bride of Christ," including a smaller dowry that was given to the convent. Serafina was an accomplished singer and had a lover "on the outside," and was heartbroken to be confined to a convent.Serafina disrupted the everyday lives of the convent - ranging in emotions from hysterics to depression - and her advocate was Suora Zuana, the convent's healer. Suora Zuana took the young novice under her wing, attempting to show her that nuns had more rights inside the convent than outside. As in her past books, Dunant created unforgettable characters - ones that taught us more about the history than the plot itself. One of the more fascinating characters was the convent's abbess, Madonna Chiara. The abbess was incredibly savvy, despite her near-lifelong seclusion, and her astute handling of convent politics made her that more interesting. Her adversary was Suora Umiliana - the novice mistress who disagreed with Madonna Chiara's leadership of the convent. And in the middle was Suora Zuana, whose healing included the body and soul.While I enjoyed the characters, there were times when the plot of Sacred Hearts dragged, and I became less interested in the "main" story of Serafina and more interested in the political chess game between Madonna Chiara and Suora Umiliana. I wished Dunant made this conflict more central to the story. Sacred Hearts, in my opinion, is the weakest of the three Italian Renaissance stories because of this plot issue. But that doesn't mean it's a bad book. It just means its predecessors (The Birth of Venus and In The Company of the Courtesan) had a stronger mixture of characters, plots and historical framework. Lovers of historical fiction, especially of the Italian Renaissance, should find all of Dunant's books to be compelling and explorative reads.
    • 5/5
      The only reason I picked this book up was because I loved The Red Tent, another title by the same author. I was truly astounded by how interesting Dunant made the subject matter. I feel that Dunant is an unrecognized literary master from the modern era.