How one event can follow your whole life

Synopsis

Carlo Gesualdo, prince, composer and murderer has his wife and her lover killed in Naples in 1590. The wife’s maidservant,Laura Scala, witnesses the events and vowes to avenge her mistress.

The princess, Donna Maria d’Avalos, rescued Laura in Sicily after she had been raped at the age of thirteen. Laura devotes her life to her saviour and after the murders she spends years of her life trying to be revenged on the musical prince.

The scene moves from Sicily to Naples and Venice, back to Naples and finally to the New World. Laura believes she is carrying a curse. Everyone she becomes involved with appears to suffersmisfortune and death.

A Jewish girl in the Venetian ghetto is kidnapped and sold into the Sultan’s harem, Laura’s daughter is placed in an orphanage without her knowledge, the artist Caravaggio uses Laura as a model and meets a tragic end.

Three beautiful pearls given to Laura by her mistress play a part in the story. Is Laura really cursed – or is it her connection with the murderous prince who dabbles in the occult?

A gypsy woman is burned at the stake, a Venetian gondolier meets a mysterious fate and Laura becomes a skilled herbalist and poisoner by default before the story ends in the New World. The background to these events is the strange and compelling music of Gesualdo.

My review

Laura Scala is the maidservant of Donna Maria D’Avalos, wife of Prince and Composer Carlo Gesualdo. But when Maria is murdered together with her lover by her husband, Laura swears that revenge will be taken on Carlo Gesualdo.
No matter where life takes Laura, from Sicily, Naples, Venice, together with artists, gypsies and gondoliers, she always keeps an eye on the prize: Carlo Gesualdo.

While it may look like this is just a story about a woman seeking revenge, for me it was more the tale of an unfortunate woman.

From a very young age, it’s obvious that the cards Laura has been dealt by life, aren’t the best in the game.
However each time she tries to make the best of the current situation, how hard it is and no matter how many are against her.
Through the whole story, after several points that would break everyone, we keep seeing the strength Laura possesses.
She promises revenge when Donna Maria is murdered, and her determination is clear because even after the years passing by, she never forgets that made promise.

I found this a sad, dark story, because every new adventure Laura embarks (of free will of nearly being forced to escape her current situation), I was hoping that Laura could finally find some happiness.
But it saddened me that the bad luck kept following her, no matter what. Each time it would appear to be a happy period for Laura, something came along, crushing that little happiness she found.

I found it interesting how the author managed to write a story around real events, giving her own twist to it.
The fact that there were several people who truly existed, made it even more possible to submerge me in the right setting and mind-set.
The author managed also perfectly in capturing the way of living of each city. Because there is a difference in living in Sicily, or Naples, Rome, or Venice. All being in Italy, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a different way of life in each city. And there are many contrast comparing places.

Laura’s life is a tragic one, and that’s what kept me reading, it’s enthralling to see how she copes with every twist thrown at her. And of course, more important, will she succeed in keeping her promise?