Homestead

By Rosina Lippi

Book Overview

A breathtaking saga of three clans and their linked destinies in a remote alpine village -- a world as foreign as another planet, as near as our own longings and loves.High in the Austrian Alps, ringed by the Three Sisters and the majestic Praying Hands, lies the tiny village of Rosenau, so isolated that the arrival of a postcard is an event that sets everyone talking. Life in Rosenau revolves around harvesting hay, tending animals and making cheese. Against this humble backdrop, Rosina Lippi unfolds the grand passions -- love, desire, courage, revenge, loyalty, envy, grief -- that animate the human heart.The novel opens in 1909 with Anna of Bengat homestead and her passion for rough, honest Peter, her husband, and for their children, and for her dead sister's boys, feebleminded Stante and crippled Michel. As the years pass, we follow the fortunes of Anna's children and grandchildren, and the connected families of Bent Elbow homestead and the Wainright's clan, through two world wars and into the late 1970s.As we read, each chapter adds layers of meaning from a different character's point of view, and the life of Rosenau gathers force and complexity, like a living thing. We don't notice while we're watching, but when the tale is done we're stunned by its fullness and beauty.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883285143
• ISBN13: 9781883285142
• Release Date: January 1900
• Publisher: Delphinium Books
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A wonderfully written and touching story

This is a marvellous book. It is the story of a small Alpine village over the course of 70 years told through the lives of the women who lived there. Each chapter is the story of an individual woman at a point in time, but the stories weave in and out so that you never lose track of what happened to them. I found the book deeply satisfying to read - at times it was funny, it was always touching and often very sad. I felt I was involved in the lives of these women (and their men-folk), there was great suspense and it was extremely well-written. I wonder what other readers made of the final chapter - it seemed to me that everything had come full circle. I would love to read this novel as part of a book club discussion.If you enjoy "literary fiction" this book is for you - you will not be disappointed. It entertains and it stimulates - what more can any reader ask for?

A Beautiful Book!

This book is a gem. I didn't know I could identify so completely with characters from another country, time, and way of life. Lippi's writing gifts are responsible; they make every one of these stories evocative and memorable. I only wish she'd write more stories about the people of Rosenau -- not moving forward in time but paralleling the time she's already covered.

a lovely, stunning surprise...

I only happened upon Homestead after finishing (and really enjoying) Into the Wilderness. I was looking for the "Wilderness" sequel release date, and discovered it's author's real name was Rosina Lippi, and not Sara Donati! So, I found Homestead, and it was a lovely, stunning surprise! Actually, the only flaw I could find with the book, was the change in author's names, as I might have missed it! Homestead is a deeply layered, moving, work of art. Every word conservatively, and thoughtfully used, and touches the reader somewhere down deep. A must-own, and visit often novel.

This book is an unsung masterpiece!

Why hasn't this book been lauded more loudly? I stumbled on it and had never heard of it. These wonderful, interrelated stories capture the entire 20th century in one Austrian mountain village. Each chapter tells the story of one of the peasant women, and sometimes the real "end of the story" only comes in a future chapter. Touching and true, these stories show how little changes in the basis of a woman's life: love, children and work. Each woman's emotional life is laid bare in a short chapter. The course of the century leaves its mark as the wars wreak their misery even on this little isolated village, and of course the women are left to mourn.You will love this book and will want to pass it on so you can talk about it with your friends!

Wonderful stories about strong bur very human women

Rosina Lippi's book, HOMSTEAD, is a wondeful book about the strength and endurance and beauty of generations of peasant women living on small dairy farms high in the Austrian Alps. Though this book is listed as fiction, after glancing through the table of contents with all of its names, clan charts, naming conventions, pronounciation guides, and glossary, I thought it was going to be one of those books I would have to plough through along with the women in the book. Golly, it was daunting! However, before I finished the first chapter about Anna, and the Begat Homestead, 1909, I was intriuged and was happy to be flipping back and forth between all of these guides meeting women who had personality as well as endurance . I wanted to be a part of their lives and have them be a part of mine. Lippi has done a remarkable job of bringing these women to life. She tells about the inevitable disintegration of peasant life as the world shrinks in the face of technology. By sending me back to the simple peasant life in 1909, I realize how much I miss by having all of these machines do all of my work so I can save all of that time to use these machines. I don't much want to milk cows and make my own cheese, but I would like the strength these women had to face the world. This book reminds me of John Berger's trilogy, INTO THEIR LABOURS, which chronicles the creeping death of simplicity in the rural areas of the Alps of France.