Lives of the Saints § In a Glass House § Where She Has Gone
Look for the miniseries from this award-winning trilogy starring Sophia Loren, Nick Mancuso, Jessica Paré, Fab Filippo, Sabrina Ferilli, and Kris Kristofferson.
"There is no doubt that Nino Ricci is one of Canada's best novelists to appear for a long time." — The Spectator
LIVES OF THE SAINTS
What really happened to Vittorio's mother that day in the stable? That he’d been bitten by a snake was clear enough: the swelling in the ankle proved it. But what other swelling, the one that led eventually to his mother’s long, loose dresses, to those dark, cold stares from the other villagers – what strange thing could be taking shape there in his mother's belly, and what doom would it carry them all to?
Winner of the Governor General's Award, The Books in Canada First Novel Award, The F.G. Bressani Prize, The Betty Trask Award, and the Winnifred Holtby Prize.
{Published in the U.S. as The Book of Saints)
Praise for Lives of the Saints
"This
is a marvellously told story, unbearably poignant…I can hardly think of a
book I have enjoyed more this year."
— Justin Cartwright, The Telegraph
"Extraordinary and dazzling." — Times Literary Supplement
"An
impressive debut…more will be heard from this author."
— The Guardian
"There is an inner strength in Nino Ricci's prose which is apparent on every page…This is an outstanding first novel, acutely and sensitively observed." — The Tablet
"Nino
Ricci…has written a first novel with hardly a false note."
— The Observer
"Lives
of the Saints is simple, moving and compelling."
— The Spectator
"A
beautifully paced and measured first novel…an extraordinary story - brooding
and ironic, suffused with yearning, tender and lucid and gritty…perfect pitch
and brilliant descriptive powers."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Nino Ricci's complex and skilfully fashioned tale of life in an Italian Apennine village offers pleasure too seldom present in contemporary fiction: full and involving characterizations, an exhilarating combination of tightly knit plot and episodic looseness, and a rich sense of lives lived truly communally, in conflict and in balance with one another…exudes a dazzling breadth and richness." — USA Today
"A
book to celebrate - a wise, poignant and poised novel."
— Wall Street Journal
"A fine, artful piece of work…a powerful tale." — Washington Post
"Lives of the Saints is a gem of a novel, and its author is blessed with the rare ability to recreate the world entire and make us believe in it." — The Globe and Mail
"This seems to me to be literature at its best, a sense of life lived, a sense of life felt, not without dreams, not without poetry, but without fakery." — The Toronto Star
IN A GLASS HOUSE
Nino Ricci's finely crafted second novel — following his award-winning Lives of the Saints — fulfills and expands upon the promise of that debut. As the young Italian boy Vittorio Innocent arrives in the New World, leaving the arms of his dying mother for the troubled haven of his father, he and his half-sister Rita must make their way in a farming community whose ways are both magical and forbidding. In a Glass House is a novel rich in both language and insight — a mature extension of Lives of the Saints, and a moving portrait of the immigrant experience.
Praise for In a Glass House
"Splendidly, even forcefully written, this is a novel which nags at the soul." — Glasgow Herald
"Powerful, fascinating and ultimately
endearing."
— The Good Book Guide
"Compelling in its artistry…[Ricci
is] an extraordinarily subtle writer."
— The Guardian
"Ricci has written a profound
essay on the human soul."
— Sunday Telegraph
"Full of sensitive, insightful writing…a strongly voiced and engaging book... Ricci's observation about family dynamics…are frequently elegant." — The Boston Sunday Globe
"Lyrical." — The Los Angeles Times
"A superbly sad story…Nino Ricci's
triumph."
— Washington Post
"In A Glass House is a haunting, lyrical, intelligent coming-of-age novel…the acuity of its observations, the eloquence of its prose and the hard-earned wisdom of its final pages make it a genuine achievement." — The New York Times Book Review
WHERE SHE HAS GONE
Set in Toronto and Italy, this powerful sequel to In a Glass House explores the sometimes forbidden aspect of desire and one’s longing for what is unrecoverable. Victor Innocente remeets his half-sister in Toronto, shortly after his father’s death. Uneasy with their new proximity in each other’s lives, they are at first restrained. But gradually what is unspoken between them comes closer to the surface, setting in motion a course of events that will take Victor back to Valle del Sole in Italy, the place of his birth. It is there, where the story had its strange beginning twenty years earlier, that he confronts his past, its secrets and its revelations. Poignant, gripping, and written in luminous, highly charged prose, Where She Has Gone is an unforgettable novel – for its vivid portrayal of character and place, and for its extraordinarily moving encounter with the past.
Shortlisted for the Giller Prize.
Praise for Where She Has Gone
"A superb stylist whose unpretentious prose carries an emotional charge that gathers so slowly and surely that we're surprised to find ourselves so moved by his characters' stoically borne crises." — Kirkus Reviews
"Ricci explores the immigrant's ambivalence concerning home and identity in a sensitive, compelling fashion." — Library Journal
"Ricci's poetic prose and fluid
plot create a tense and beautiful story whose sad ironies achieve resolution
in a haunting conclusion."
— Publishers Weekly
"Ricci has spun out a delicate and soulful novel." — TIME
"Ricci is too subtle a writer
to slip into melodrama. His assured prose is both naturalistic and lyrical…an
accomplished and moving work."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Outstanding…the work of a writer arrived at startling maturity…The novel's language and rhythms are quietly extraordinary, both loose-limbed and intense, moving with fluid grace between the sharp here and now of Toronto or rural Italy and the brooding landscape of Victor's mind…vibrant with life." — Times Literary Supplement
"Ricci manipulates our expectations
with an adept, steady hand."
— Time Out London
"Absorbing and moving." — The Sunday Times
"The smooth surface of Ricci's
prose belies the novel's richness as it builds surely and lucidly towards
a poignant, bittersweet conclusion: Ricci's exploration of the rupture between
old world and new is masterful."
— The Observer
"Where She Has Gone casts a spell of its own, a spell of fierce beauty and tragic loss." — Financial Post
"Ricci's prose, like his earlier
novel, is beautifully accessible, rich in imagery, balanced in its approach
to plot and meaning."
— The London Free Press