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by Laura Bellusci (Author)
The Eternal Pine is a historical novel told within the framework of a fairy tale. Set in 18th century Naples, Italy the tale encompasses orphans, church rule and a villainous king. Alessandra: orphan, victim, survivor, lover, story teller-plays no known role in history, but nevertheless has a dramatic arc of her own, rising from a life of squalor to designing gowns for rich aristocrats and for the annual femminiello* wedding. Along the way, she outwits a king and gives life to a story that continues the myth of the seeds and points to life everlasting.
Naples is a myth-maker: It holds the characters within the shadow of Vesuvius and the curve of its bay and draws the reader into a tangled web of magical realism, contradiction, terror and beauty.
Like all myths, its magic and mayhem transverses centuries. Set in the Spanish Bourbon era of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, abuses of power under Primo (real life Ferdinando I) are as relevant to our age as they were in times past.
* femminiello - "little woman-man," so-called third sex unique to Naples.
