Maria, Maria

By: Jennifer Galvao

Amidst the vast, sunlit cornfields of Portugal, Maria Lucilia receives a letter. The note is from her husband, Benedito da Silva, who is in exile – serving a punishing seven-year sentence as a fisherman with the White Fleet. But Bene cannot read or write.

In the icy port town of St John’s, Newfoundland, another woman welcomes Bene into her life and composes a letter to a stranger across the sea. Maria Alvares, a widowed shopkeeper, knows the uneasy power she wields – the other woman, lending a voice for the man she loves to reach the wife he left behind.

Though thousands of miles stand between them, the two Marias are drawn irresistibly to know each other. Slowly, in the margins and footnotes of the letters, a deep connection emerges: fears, hopes, and secrets neither woman has spoken aloud. What grows between them has the power to sustain – or undo – them both.

Intimate, atmospheric, and infused with a powerful yearning, Maria, Maria is inspired by a piece of the author’s own family history. Jennifer Galvao’s debut novel is a story of hope and endurance – in which the deepest bonds form not between lovers, but rivals.

'Sweeping yet intimate, heart-breaking yet hopeful, Maria, Maria made me gasp and cry more than once. This is a story to be completely swept up in, with writing so tender it hurts.'
JENNIE GODFREY

© Jennifer Galvao 2027 (P) Penguin Audio 2027

Critic reviews

A transporting, romantic, immensely generous novel about love in its many forms. Jennifer Galvão is a writer of the highest order, one to be spoken of alongside Amy Bloom and Colm Tóibín and Maggie Shipstead. and her debut, Maria, Maria, is simply a marvel. (Jenny Jackson)

Sweeping yet intimate, heart-breaking yet hopeful, Maria, Maria made me gasp and cry more than once. This is a story to be completely swept up in, with writing so tender it hurts.