Caetani Splash - Return to Rome - a Fundraising Gala and Art Auction; The Online/Silent Auction ends on
Lot 9:
Laisha Rosnau
"The Little Fortress" by Laisha Rosnau. Regular Price for this book is $25. Buy it Now for $15. This will be gone by the time the live event starts so be the first to Buy it Now.
In this captivating and intricate novel Laisha Rosnau introduces us to three women, each of whom is storied enough to have their own novel and who, together, make for an unforgettable tale. Based on the true story of the Caetanis, Italian nobility driven out of their home by the rise in fascism who chose exile in Vernon, BC, Rosnau brings to life Ofelia Caetani, her daughter Sveva Caetani and their personal secretary, Miss Juul. Miss Juul is the voice of the novel, a diminutive Danish woman who enters into employment with the Caetani family in Italy before the birth of Sveva, stays with them through twenty-five years of seclusion at their home in Vernon, and past the death of Ofelia. Little Fortress is a story of a shifting world, with the death of its age-old nobility, and of the intricacies of the lives of women caught up in these grand changes. It is a story of friendship, class, betrayal and love.
Reviews | Interviews | Articles | Excerpt | About the Author
Reviews:
“Little Fortress is a sublime novel that asks what happens when you rebel against the narrow strictures of your life. When Miss Inger-Marie Jüül rides away from her family’s farm, her story spirals through time, through two world wars, ranging from lonely Danish lighthouses to Cairo, from Italian villas to Okanagan orchards. This is a haunting, sweeping story, both mournful and stitched with a lilt of hope.”
– Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift
“Little Fortress lives and breathes. Based on real people, it builds a deep and convincing world of its own. Rosnau’s portraits of three women, especially her voicing of Miss Jüül, are indelible. An unforgettable novel.”
– Alix Hawley, author of All True Not a Lie in It and My Name Is a Knife
“There’s something wonderfully subversive about Laisha Rosnau’s new novel, Little Fortress. Her women, driven by passion and pain, live on their own terms in a world that would reduce them to eccentric curiosities when they are so much more. Rosnau does a brilliant job of resurrecting and reimagining this piece of Canadian history.”
– Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean and The Sweet Girl
Reviews
Women’s Voices in Historical Fiction: Little Fortress by Laisha Rosnau and A Roll of the Bones by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole (Naomi MacKinnon, Consumed by Ink, 24/02/2020)
"It is not the hows and the whys that make this story special – it is getting to hear these women of the past speak for themselves."
#686 Pleasant Valley Seclusion (Mary-Ann and David Stouck, The Ormsby Review, 11/12/2019)
"Rosnau’s skill as a travel writer comes to the fore in evocative, often painterly descriptions of Cairo and especially of Alexandria with its crowded streets, palm gardens, and horseback riding in the desert where every detail is sharply defined and radiant…. [Rosnau] knows the value of style, of elegantly crafted phrases, and well-turned sentences – and she never falters."
The Minerva Reader is back! (Lisa de Nikolits, The Minerva Reader, 11/01/2019)
"This is a beautiful story of endurance and survival."
Little Fortress (Candace Fertile, Quill & Quire, October 2019)
"Rosnau has done a masterful job of using the lives of historical figures as the building blocks of a stunning work of fiction."
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