Sacred Hearts

A Novel

By: Sarah Dunant

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God’s protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.

Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant–young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl’s cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.

As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena–with her history of visions and ecstasies–locked in her cell; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, who comes to see in the postulant a way to extend her influence; and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess’s job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of terrible oppression.

Sarah Dunant, the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, brings this intricate Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid Sacred Hearts is a rich, engrossing, multifaceted love story, encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the deep, enduring power of friendship.

©2009 Sarah Dunant (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“A cast of complex characters breathe new life into the classic star-crossed lovers trope while affording readers a look at a facet of Renaissance life beyond the far more common viscounts and courtesans. Dunant’s an accomplished storyteller, and this is a rich and rewarding novel.”–Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Dunant's brilliant imagination is at its powerful best as she re-creates the routines, the crotchets and tiny details of convent life in 1570. The reader can hear the rustle of nuns' habits and the murmur of their prayers….[a] captivating novel…packed with complex relationships, passion, sorrow and religious devotion….this novel unequivocally does what fiction is supposed to do and rarely does: It takes us to a place we could never personally experience. Dunant creates such a living and tangible environment, built on meticulous yet unobtrusive research, that she shares with us the joys and sorrows, the frustration and anger, the rebellion, submission and sometimes even the presence of God.”—Washington Post

“A great read that throws a light in a hidden corner of history, with a bonus: Although written for a secular crowd, it never discounts the possibility of miracles.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer

Unknown Life As Nuns

I cannot imagine living as nun in 21st century, I'm always thinking being a nun is a choice, but not until I listen the audiobook. OMG that was terrible and shocking for me, a young girl was forced into nunnery.
As the story goes I find out that nuns also have demons in them just like everybody living outside the nunnery, they can be jealous,hatred,betrayal,trust, and love.
Honestly this is my first spiritual genre audiobook, I can't say the whole aspect of the story is fact, I just enjoy and regard it as pure fiction. I also love Rosalyn Landor, she's done a great job!

Excellent and accurate!

The story was a captivating. One can feel the pain and distress that must have plagued all the women who were forcibly monachated.

Lovey Reading

Was a little concerned that the book would be too long for the subject matter, but the hours went by too fast as I became immersed in the time period, the convent and the lives of the nuns. Very well read. I would definitely listen to another by both the author and narrator.

Literary fiction and not an action thriller

Being an action junkie, I found the pace of this story to be excruciatingly slow. The author, Sarah Dunant, described convent life in such laborious detail that I felt every bit the prisoner listening as Serafina, the 16-year-old protagonist, enslaved to the sisters of the Santa Caterina convent. What kept me engaged was sympathy for Serafina while she endured abject despair. Fortunately, there is a satisfying ending.

Students of history will enjoy the well-researched background material provided by the author and Rosalyn Landor does an excellent job with the narration. Her characters have distinct voices that are easy to identify.

Truly a gem of a story brought to life by an excellent performer.

Everything from Sarah Dunant is ridiculously good. This story is a favorite with rich, fully formed characters. Great performance did it justice and helped set the tone for this book. I wish she was the narrator for all of Ms Dunant’s stories. I’d love to listen to The Birth of Venus by the same performer.

A riveting historical novel

I love well-written historical novels and I've always been fascinated by the life of nuns. This book was a gripping look into the world of an Italian convent--the politics, the spiritual lives, the practicalities. It was well done and the narration was absolutely perfect. Well worth the time.

Well done Sarah!

Would you listen to Sacred Hearts again? Why?

yes, it's a good historical representation of the period told with sensitivity through the experiences of nuns and the plight of women of that era.

What other book might you compare Sacred Hearts to and why?

Anya Seaton "The Green Darkness".. the story telling is as gripping.

If you could take any character from Sacred Hearts out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Sarah Dunant, the author... because she is an old friend.

Refreshing and Empowering Perspective

What made the experience of listening to Sacred Hearts the most enjoyable?

So often we are told by media, fiction, and culture at large that the Church, past and present, supports and perpetrates the subjugation of women. In fact, as this novel demonstrates, medieval convents could be incredibly liberating places for the women who lived there. Here we see women governing themselves, pursuing science and the arts, being allowed to live up to their potential in ways that they have rarely been allowed to do elsewhere. By the same token, the novel is not naive to the pressures and abuses of power that took place from without and within. The historicity is textured and beautiful. The characters are rich with complexity, conflicts emerging both within them and from without. I was spellbound throughout, changing my mind more than once about whether I believed Serafina should find a place for herself in Santa Caterina or should escape to her beloved Iacobo (sp?). Thank you for this novel.

Blessed Love

This is the third book by Sarah Dunant set in Italy during the Renaissance and this doesn't disappoint. I joke about little girls becoming nuns because their fathers don't want them to date or something, and this book was right up my alley concerning that(which is partially why I enjoyed it so.)

I took my time reading this because I wanted to savour the detail and get a good feel for convent life. I felt the closeness, the harshness, the love, the hate, the alien-ness of being locked away from the world and yet still expected to serve in it on some level.

The books starts out how I feel many women would respond if put into that situation. Screaming. This book made me glad that I'm a woman of the 21st century and can choose. I don't know what I would do if I were Serafina and forced into a place I didn't want to be. I don't believe I'd have her courage.

I really liked all the of people Dunant placed in the convent to give it depth and movement. I'll be honest I'd made a horrible nun being surrounded by women and this book just confirmed it took strong women not to kill each other. There are factions and alliances to make Survivor seem like kindergarten recess. There's lying, gossip, back-talk and all done under a veil of "silence."

Dunant takes you into a world that you hope to never experience, but almost want to try out even if just for a day.

There were a few problems though. Sometimes I felt things were too overly explained. I also felt that the ending was a bit abrupt. I mean it ended well, but I felt like there could have been more closure. I also wish that one of the characters had a much bigger part in the book overall.

Beatifull

As with the previous 2 books of this genre by the author, this book shines. In many ways I consider it the most complex yet compared to the previous 2 novels, all the action takes place in a relatively small space- in a convent.The characters are 3 dimensional, the politics within the convent mirror the larger political forces of that era. And the description of the honest spiritual yearnings of the nuns is balanced with the psychology of supression, rationalization and sublimation as attempts to maintain their sanity since these women were imprisoned from childhood.
I am very sorry its the last novel; hopefully there will be a 4th.