Sacred Hearts is definitely the best of Dunant’s Renaissance novels. I was totally absorbed in life behind the walls of Santa Caterina. Although, I find it difficult to believe that Serafina managed to fool so many. I mean, when a rebellious sixteen-year-old girl suddenly becomes sweet and complacent it means she’s up to something. Everyone knows that, or so I thought. Especially women who used to be sixteen-year-old girls themselves. I know that being sixteen then meant different things than being sixteen, in maturity and responsibility, but come on!
The contrast between the austere piety of Umiliana and the more worldly shrewdness of Chiara was especially well done. There was little freedom for women in those times and I found it fascinating that many found more of it within the convent walls than in the outside world. The fight for those freedoms in the face of the reforms of the Counter-Reformation was very compelling.
This is an excellent, absorbing read, though I must say that the way Serafina’s fate was achieved was almost too cliché.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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