Lies and Sorcery

This 1948 novel from Morante (1912–1985), appearing unabridged in English for the first time in a translation by McPhee, is a thrilling saga of love and madness in a southern Italian city. The narrator, a young woman whose guardian recently died, tells the tale in hopes of freeing herself from the memories of her ancestors, including dissolute nobleman Teodoro Massia, who married young governess Cesira sometime around the turn of the 20th century. When Cesira learns her husband is actually destitute, she begins to hate him, but their daughter, Anna, worships her doting, drunken father and matures into a dreamy, isolated young woman convinced of her own superiority. Encountering her wealthy, beautiful, and cruel cousin Edoardo Cerentano, son of Teodoro’s sister, Anna falls in love, and the teenage cousins embark on a passionate yet chaste affair. After a bout of illness, Edoardo abandons Anna, pushing her off on his friend, the resentful, intelligent student Francesco di Salvi, who adores Anna and breaks up with his girlfriend Rosaria, a village girl and sex worker he’d previously wanted to marry. Seduced and blackmailed by Edoardo, Rosaria eventually emerges as the most sympathetic of the four, the only one capable of sympathy and forgiveness. Maintaining an ironic distance, Morante’s lengthy but propulsive narrative describes in detail the characters’ desires, fears, and superstitions, as well as the stultifying class divisions, religiosity, and financial troubles that define their lives. It’s a tremendous accomplishment. (Sept.)