The Stone Boudoir
Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Experience the history and daily rhythms of Sicily’s remote mountain towns with this stunning travel memoir revealing the hearts and minds of everyday Sicilians.
In this sparkling book, Theresa Maggio takes us on a journey in search of Sicily’s most remote and least explored mountain towns. Using her grandparents’ ancestral village of Santa Margherita Belice as her base camp, she pores over old maps to plot her adventure, selecting as her targets the smallest dots with the most appealing names.
Her travels take her to the small towns surrounding Mt. Etna, the volcanic islands of the Aeolian Sea, and the charming villages nestled in the Madonie Mountains. Whether she’s writing about the unique pleasures of Sicilian street food, the damage wrought by molten lava, the ancient traditions of Sicilian bagpipers, or the religious processions that consume entire villages for days on end, Maggio succeeds in transporting readers to a wholly unfamiliar world, where almonds grow like weeds and the water tastes of stone.
In the stark but evocative prose that is her hallmark, Maggio enters the hearts and heads of Sicilians, unlocking the secrets of a tantalizingly complex culture. Although she makes frequent forays to villages near and far, she always returns to Santa Margherita, where she researches her family tree in the municipio, goes on adventures with her cousin Nella, and traces the town’s past in history and literature. A beautifully wrought meditation on time and place, The Stone Boudoir will be treasured by all who love fine travel writing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sicily is firmly ensconced in the minds of foreigners as the bastion of the Mafiosi a land where no organization is as powerful as a crime family and no bond stronger than blood. Maggio, a travel writer who's been exploring her grandparents' homeland for more than 15 years, has found an even more lasting force in the worn stones of the remote towns of Sicily's mountainous regions: "something thrums in the stones of Sicilian hill towns," she writes, "and I have become obsessed with them both." In villages built on the flood plain of Mt. Etna's scorching lava flows, she marvels at the cycle of life provided by the volcano's nutrients. Reflecting on the antiquity of a town carved entirely out of the face of a cliff, she notes the modern glow of television radiating across the rock walls. "Stones are crystals, which vibrate, each at its own frequency. The stones live long, slow lives," she muses. If some of the passages smack of New Age beatitudes, mostly her tone will be familiar to readers of Mattanza, her vivid account of the epic Mediterranean tuna hunts. Curious, light-hearted and enthusiastic, Maggio roams the villages of Etna and the Madonie Mountains as though hunting butterflies. Each detail is worthy of scrutiny, from the way Sicilian women hang out their wash to the peculiar placement of Sicilian kitchens on the top floor of the house. While her fascination with the bedrock of Sicilian communities is evident, it's her quick understanding of the residents' humanity that brings the landscapes to life in this engaging travel memoir.
