Homestead
From AwardAnnals
| Book: | Homestead |
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| Author: | Rosina Lippi |
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| Publisher: | Delphinium Books |
The novel opens in 1909 with Anna of Bengat homestead and her love for rough, beautiful Peter, her husband, and for their children, and for her dead sister’s boys, feeble-minded Stante and crippled Michel. As the years pass, the story unfolds through the eyes of the women of Anna’s family and the interconnected families of Bent Elbow homestead and the Wainwright’s clan: Bent Elbow’s Johanna, finding sudden, late love in the summer of 1916 with the Italian deserter Francesco; Isabella, Peter’s mother, who cannot bring herself to look at his ravaged face when he comes home from the Great War; Wainwright’s Katharina, half-sister to Stante and Michel, carelessly betraying them to the Nazis for a ride in a Daimler; Anna’s Olga, who grows up to marry Goat-Cheese Willi’s Klaus and lose him and her four brothers in the maw of the Second World War.
As we read, each chapter adds layers of meaning from a different character’s point of view, and the life of Rosenau gathers force and complexity, like a living thing.
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Reviews
Amazon.com
The setting for this poignant novel is Rosenau, an isolated Austrian Village, and the story encompasses generations of villagers and their intimate lives. The magic of the novel lies in the author’s ability to make the faraway seem familiar, even when it is tragic or brutal. Structured as short stories told from the viewpoints of different members of the village, the novel follows their intertwined lives from 1909 through 1977, layering story upon story to develop the village and the characters.
Lippi’s characters are nothing short of wonderful. There is, for example, Johanna, whose heart is torn between her love for Francesco—a soldier hiding in the Austrian Alps—and her sister Angelika, who hides her dependence upon Johanna behind not-so-subtle reminders of familial duty. And there is Katharina, whose impulsiveness causes her to betray her two half-brothers for a ride in a Nazi motorcar, and Stante, who proves his worth not only in the Wainwright’s workshop but also by his courage withstanding the Nazis. The character portrayals are based upon Lippi’s own experiences living in Austria for four years. You’ll hate for these stories to end.
