The Flying Island by Romana Petri

Paperback: ISBN: 1-902881-64-8 8½"x5½" US$ 12.95

Read an Excerpt | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Booksense | Buy from Barnes & Noble
Buy Through a Canadian Independent | Buy through Chapters/Indigo

Romana Petri gives us an unsentimental account of a way of living, a view of the natural and social world under threat. Her anxious tracing of a fast-encroaching and all-consuming alien culture leads to a work of lyrical fantasy combined with acute social analysis.

The Flying Island is an account of an Italian woman’s solitary stay on the Azores. The islanders are poised between their open generosity and simplicity, their traditions bordering on the magic and the supernatural; and the brute realism of the new American culture imported with returning workers who increasingly view the Azores not as home but as holiday destination.

Translated by Sharon Wood, from the originally entitled La donna delle Azzorre.

About the Author

ROMANA PETRI was born in 1955 in Rome. She graduated in Languages and Literature. Rizzoli published her first collection of short stories, The Blue Prawn, in 1990, whose title story was recently produced on Canadian radio. A writer for the newspaper L’Unita, her three published novels are highly regarded in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France. An Umbrian War, published as Alle Case Venie, was first published in 1997, and has won several literary awards, including the 1998 Rapallo-Carige Prize, the Palmi Prize and was a finalist for the Strega prize.

The Critics Praise:

“Petri’s moody hand works some dark magic in these pages”
KIRKUS REVIEWS