Marianna can’t wait to get away from backward Sicily, her ancestral home. While she loves many aspects of Sicily, its silence, superstitions, and stereotypes infuriate her. However, learning her grandmother’s and her mother’s histories changes her perception. Just as she determines to accept her Sicilian destiny, her family determines a new destiny for her: emigration.

This book includes many stories in one. Marianna’s encounters with the workers on her family’s land tell one story about Sicily’s traditions, like when and how to plant and harvest crops, delicious recipes, and herbal remedies. The book, like Marianna, delights in forays through the beautiful landscape. The pastoral scenery, though, hides class rifts and political upheavals Marianna learns about in books to which she wants to respond—another thread. Earthquakes and volcanoes occasion tense scenes and expose Marianna’s feelings. Bringing some of these conflicts into the open, Marianna prompts her grandmother to inform her about previous generations. These various layers work to create an inviting and immersive world explored with grace, at a human pace.

The rich dialogue (Marianna’s arguments with the cook are particularly entertaining and funny) is balanced out by reflective writing, including literature passages Marianna memorizes. The development of Marianna’s voice and conscience is dominant, but even minor characters, like a disgruntled worker and her step-grandfather, make a lasting impression through the book’s vibrant attention to detail. Marianna reconciles folk wisdom, some dispensed in Italian and translated in a glossary, her grandmother’s lessons, and her own psychological insights. The thorough dive into her origins to make sense of her life comes at a price, however. She is uprooted. The ending surprises, inserting a new theme of emigration that demands another beginning. Luckily, the book has a sequel.

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