I am so pleased to be bringing you an excerpt of this book today. It is Poinsiettia Girl: The Story of Agata della Pieta by Jennifer Wizbowski and is perfect for the historical fiction fans among you.
The Blurb
Venice, 1710
Poinsettia Girl is based on the story of Agata de la Pieta, an orphan musician of the Ospedale de la Pieta.
Ten-year-old Agata's world is shaken at the sudden death of her mother. Left only with her egregious father, a working musician in Venice, her ailing grandmother sends her to the well-known orphanage, hidden from everything she's ever known.
Agata auditions for the conservatory style music school where music is both salvation and spectacle. Hidden behind ornate metal grates, adorned with poinsettias in their hair, the singers are veiled in mystery, their ethereal music drawing noble audiences, including gilded young men who see them as treasures-not only for their sound but as coveted marriage prizes.
Just as she reaches the height of her musical journey, a marriage proposal from someone outside the audience tempts her with the promise of a new life-a return to the old neighborhood she's longed for and a home she barely remembers.
Torn between the music that has defined her and the hope of belonging to a family, Agata must confront the most profound question of her life: is her purpose rooted in the music that shaped her, or in the love that might free her?
The Excerpt
It was often said that during Carnival, the entire city is in disguise. Agata had never known that before the man with the red jacket came that night to her Nonna’s apartment. The tucked-away neighborhood of San Canciano sheltered Agata from the strangers who descended upon Venice seeking out its famed excitement. She'd grown up observing it, celebrated by the neighborhood men, who regularly played table games in the square. They shook their same dice on the same rickety table night after night throughout the rest of the year—only during Carnival, they played those games with their Carnival capes and masks on. The extra candlelight, placed there for the celebration, coaxed their playing even later than usual into the night.
When their lonely wives would yell out the windows that it was time to come in, they'd respond with such comments as:
“Let me finish my cup!"
There was always a neighbor who would yell out from somewhere: “Aww, let them play their game.”
And then there were those wives who did not take well to being told what to do. “You mind your business while I tend to mine!" they would scream back at the neighbors. A smattering of giggles, alongside clamorous venting, often made its way in and out of open windows, bouncing throughout the square in response. The men’s cups never seemed to empty, but the barren bottles of grappa that rolled at the foot of their chairs told their wives what they already suspected. It would be another long night.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1964700434
Publisher: Historium Press
Formats: e-book, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 336 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Jennifer Wizbowski spent her childhood days lost among the spines of her favorite books. Inspired by the daffodil fields of Wordsworth and the babbling brooks of Shakespeare, she earned her bachelor’s in English literature, a minor in music, and a secondary teaching credential, then wrote freelance for local business journals, taught in classrooms, and authored a Teen and Tween column for a parent magazine—all while raising her family.
As those years ended, she knew it was the right time to pursue her lifelong aspiration of bringing her own books to life. She now devotes herself to illuminating everyday women’s stories often lost in the shadows of history, revealing how they became heroines of their own time and place.
You can also find Jennifer at:
(ARC and media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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