When Giuseppe Mundula first sees Michele Angelo Chironi across the corridor of a Sardinian orphanage, the reserved blacksmith realises he has found the son and heir he never knew he needed. And when, a few years later, Michele himself looks down from a church rooftop and sees the beautiful Mercede, the quiet orphan realises he has found the woman he will marry.

So begins Marcello Fois' magisterial domestic epic of the lives and loves of the Chironi family, as they struggle through war and fascism. Deftly endowing familial horrors with mythical resonance, Fois creates a Dantesque triptych that inscribes the history of twentieth-century Sardinia onto a single misbegotten household.

Fois' descriptive prose is lavish, powerfully evoking time and place. It's as if nature is possessed of a richness of expression that humans have yet to acquire . . . Mazzarella's translation is flawless -- Jethro Souter * Independent *
His poetic style is reminiscent of classics such as Manzoni's The Betrothed and Lampedusa's The Leopard -- David Platzer * Tablet *
Written with a lyrical, poetic flair, it's an affecting tale of the brutal realities that make life so hard but also those things that make the struggle worthwhile. * Glasgow Herald *

Marcello Fois was born in Sardinia in 1960 and is one of a gifted group of writers called 'Group 13', who explore the cultural roots of their various regions. He writes for the theatre, television and cinema, and is the author several novels, including The Advocate, Memory of the Abyss, Bloodlines and The Time in Between.