<p>Venice, July, 1613: A suspicious drowning in the Lagoon and a deadly assault on a bridge shatter the dreams of Captain Lorenzo Contarini and his fiancée, la Signorina Caterina Zanchi, members of two noble Venetian families. While Caterina's severe injuries banish her from society, her parents remove their other daughter, Leonora, from the convent to become Lorenzo's hasty wife. Lorenzo's investigation into his half-sister's death compels him to accuse his maternal aunt, the Abbess of San Zaccaria, of murder. The ruthless Abbess deflects attention from herself by demonizing Leonora's fellow nun and lover, Suor Serafina, as well as members of her own family. She is ably assisted by the feared and implacable Office of the Inquisition. The subsequent public trial brings together all of Venice and tests familial, religious, sexual, and political alliances. Old secrets are revealed to an avid crowd seeking cruel entertainment, forcing all present to wonder if it is possible to discover the entire truth. At once comforted by the ceaseless lap and sway of the enclosed Lagoon and threatened by the efficient cruelty of the Republic, those whose tale this is live and breathe in an ever-shifting world of bigotry and prejudice. Venice is never quite what it seems.</p>

Thirst

Literature & Fiction

Sharnick, Mary Donnarumma

Genre Fiction

Fireship Press

<p>Narrated by eleven-year-old Orla Gwen Gleason, Orla's Canvas opens on Easter Sunday, in St. Suplice, Louisiana, a "misspelled town" north of New Orleans, and traces Orla's dawning realization that all is not as it seems in her personal life or in the life of her community. The death of St. Suplice's doyenne, Mrs. Bellefleur Dubois Castleberry, for whom Orla's mother keeps house, reveals Orla's true paternity, shatters her trust in her beloved mother, and exposes her to the harsh realities of class and race in the Civil Rights-era South. When the Klan learns of Mrs. Castleberry's collaboration with the local Negro minister and Archbishop Rummel to integrate the parochial school, violence fractures St. Suplice's vulnerable stability. The brutality Orla witnesses at summer's end awakens her to life's tenuous fragility. Like the South in which she lives, she suffers the turbulence of changing times. Smart, resilient, and fiercely determined to make sense of her pain, Orla paints chaos into beauty, documenting both horror and grace, discovering herself at last through her art. "Taking as her canvas the Civil Rights era in Louisiana, Mary Donnarumma Sharnick tells the affecting story of Orla, a remarkable young heroine with the soul of an artist. The novel is both a gripping look into a historic moment in American culture and a poignant coming-of-age story readers won't forget." - Chantel Acevedo, author of The Distant Marvels</p>

Orla's Canvas

Dramas & Plays

Penmore Press LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sharnick, Mary Donnarumma. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sharnick, Mary Donnarumma