The Daughter of Paradiso
Italy, 1963. Graziella Bianchi returns to Paradiso, barely able to believe she has been gifted her childhood home by an old friend.
The beautiful house has fallen into a state of disrepair, but Graziella is determined to restore it to its former glory.
Although one dream has come true, life is far from perfect. She and her daughter, Lucia, are nearly penniless and the pair are on the run from Graziella’s violent husband.
With divorce not yet legal and the law still giving husbands ultimate control over their wives, Graziella must fight not only to gain her independence, but also to keep her daughter.
The villagers of Pieve Santa Clara, with their long and loyal memories, step in, and gradually a good life becomes a possibility for Graziella and Lucia.
But when her estranged husband turns up, drunk and angry, everything Graziella has worked so hard for is under threat.
The Daughter of Paradiso is a compelling and emotionally-charged historical novel perfect for fans of Dinah Jeffries, Lucinda Riley, Angela Petch and Rhys Bowen.
https://mybook.to/DaughterofParadiso
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daughter-Paradiso-Absolutely-beautiful-historical-ebook/dp/B0BWS6S5G6
Extract from The Daughter of Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra
This extract comes from Chapter 1.
Graziella and her daughter have just arrived back at Paradiso, the house Graziella now owns, and they are looking around at the old place and realising just how much work lies ahead of them...
In truth, the fact that I was now the owner of Paradiso still hadn’t quite settled in my head. At any moment I might have expected the notary to turn up and announce that it had all been some sort of misunderstanding. I reached into my handbag and took out the Certificate of Ownership and read it again, for possibly the seventh or eighth time in the space of a couple of hours, just to make sure. But there it was, in black and white signed by Gianfrancesco Marchesini; by me, Graziella Bianchi née Ponti; and stamped with Avvocato Furboni’s official government seal. Paradiso was legally mine.
As I moved through the house with ten dozen questions turning over in my mind, one thing was certain. Gino mustn’t know. My ownership of Paradiso must be kept secret from him, at least until the twenty-five million lire from the sale of the garage in Pomazzo was safely in my bank account, and probably for as long as possible after that, just to be sure. I had read up enough about the law to know that as my husband, Gino had rights to any property I owned – not the right to sell it without my consent – but he could quite legally live in it if he so decided. The thought of that was as ludicrous as it was unreasonable, but still, I knew that I had to exercise caution. Gino and I were married, and unless the day came when Italy legalized divorce, we would be married for the rest of our lives.
Lucia hadn’t uttered a word throughout the tour of her new home. She didn’t speak until we found ourselves back downstairs. ‘What is this room, Mamma?’
‘This was Zia Mina’s kitchen. It’s going to be our kitchen now.’
Lucia pulled a face and said, ‘It stinks.’
It was true that there was a particularly unpleasant smell in the kitchen – a combination of damp and rancid fat and a sulphurous smell rising from the drains. I twisted the tap to run some water, but after an initial spit, all that ran from it was a dribble, followed by a shudder and a banging from upstairs, as though somebody was hammering on the pipes. Lucia looked alarmed.
‘What’s that big box thing?’ She said.
‘It’s the stove.’
‘A stove for cooking?’
‘Yes. But it also heats the house. We put wood into it and it makes the kitchen lovely and warm and it also heats the water for our baths. And you see the long pipe which sticks out of it and up through the ceiling? It passes through the bedroom upstairs which is going to be your room. So when the stove’s on your bedroom will be lovely and cosy too.’
‘Like a radiator?’
‘Yes, Lulú. Exactly like a radiator.’
‘Where are the other radiators?’
‘There aren’t any.’
Francesca Scanacapra was born in Italy to an English mother and Italian father, and her childhood was spent living between England and Italy. Her adult life has been somewhat nomadic with periods spent living in Italy, England, France, Senegal and Spain. She describes herself as 'unconventional' and has pursued an eclectic mixture of career paths – from working in translation, the fitness industry, education and even several years as a builder. In 2021 she returned to her native country and back to her earliest roots to pursue her writing career full time. Francesca now resides permanently in rural Lombardy in the house built by her great-grandfather which was the inspiration for the Paradiso Novels .The Daughter of Paradiso is the third of the Paradiso Novels , followingParadiso andReturn to Paradiso .The Lost Boy of Bologna , was also published by Silvertail Books.
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/FrancescaScana2
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