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Maria La Divina
An intimate portrait of the world’s most iconic opera singer
Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn’s Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality.
Callas, an outsider from an impoverished background, was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists—until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment.
In Charyn’s inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.
Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn’s Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality.
Callas, an outsider from an impoverished background, was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists—until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment.
In Charyn’s inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.
336 pages, Paperback
Published September 16, 2025
1 person is currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Charyn
224 books232 followersJerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 16, 2025
The miraculous and sad story of an opera legend’s rise to greatness (Greek National Opera, Athens; La Scala, Milan, Italy; Metropolitan Opera, Manhattan, New York and elsewhere; late 1930s to 1970s): What makes a legend? How does Jerome Charyn approach capturing the greatness and loneliness of Maria Callas in his new historical novel on iconic figures?
The last time I came across the operatic words “bel canto” was in 2001 (Bel Canto by Ann Patchett). Tells you opera is not an art form I follow as it’s not my taste in music. Doesn’t have to be yours either, to find Maria La Divina an intriguing read. By an author who intrigues too.
With more than fifty literary works to his name, simply based on Jerome Charyn’s literary output, you’d be right to assume his energy is reflected in fast-moving, spirited prose that rises to the occasion of his intense subject: Maria Callas, 20th century’s most celebrated “coloratura soprano,” famous for her Italian bel canto style. A “rare” voice, “rich, deep in emotion,” breathtakingly powerful.
Charyn “found literary inspiration at the movie theater" (see: https://lithub.com/jerome-charyn-on-f...). The Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris was also honored by the French Ministry of Culture as Commander of the Arts and Letters, recognizing him as a global ambassador for literature.
So what does Jerome Charyn want us to see and feel about Maria Callas? Instead of focusing on her later, declining years as Angelina Jolie portrayed in the 2024 movie Maria, his chronological approach traces the trajectory of her life. From a “duckling” dressed shabbily to her aggressive ambition, uphill battles, rejection, defiance, the height of her career, and the unraveling.
We meet the American-born (Astoria, Queens) opera singer at fifteen, two years after she’d studied at The Athens Conservatory. Pushed there by her tormenting, “madwoman,” craving attention Greek immigrant mother, estranged from Maria’s father. She weighed 200 pounds. Voracious in appetite and starved-for-intimacy.
She fought against many odds. Coming from poor beginnings, Maria lacked the elegance and beauty of a prima donna: “beak” of a nose, unruly hair, severely nearsighted. She endured pain as her feet swelled up badly, going on for a long time without proper fitting shoes an admirer custom-made for her, at last. She battled outsider prejudice for not being one of their own in some countries where she performed. Was swept up in the politics and cruelty of the WWII years from 1940 to 1943, when the Italians, followed by the Germans invaded Greece having fallen in love with a spy — wartime fiction less commonly seen.
As the novel unfolds, opera becomes her life. While she also immensely craved the passion, lust for love, the men in her life failed her in different ways.
The narrative follows Maria’s career with highly detailed history that seems to come from piecing together many elements from many resources to present a vivid picture of two sides of her life, professional and personal. Sacred Monster is one of the books written about her. The dichotomy in the title encapsulates our conflicting impressions of “the divine one.” Complicated, evoking the grandeur of a princess, a goddess on stage. In her private life, outside of her music she wasn’t disciplined, she was impulsive, reckless. Lonely at her highest and lowest, emotionally unable to fill an emptiness.
The effect is a novel that reads more historical than fictional. Without an author’s note (in my advanced reader copy) separating fact from fiction, it’s hard to discern the difference as a cast of unfamiliar characters from different countries crosses paths with Maria’s life. Some you can’t forget; others you might want to read from the perspective of the larger context of how many people and places her voice and theatrics touched lives. Even her big, “dark eyes” “could have eaten up half the world.” When you finish reading, you’ll be the judge if she feels a tragic figure as it seems she sacrificed for half the world.
Many referred to as loggionistis. An Italian word describing opera fanatics who sat in the gallery of the famed La Scala opera theater display a wild obsession for opera.
Men championed and sacrificed for her. None more profoundly affecting than her paparazzi-chasing affair with Aristotle Onassis. Their romance humiliated his wife as all three were often onboard his yacht Christina, named for one of their daughters. These were exceptionally tumultuous times since Maria was also married. To Battista Meneghini, a wealthy Italian brickmaker who lavished her with jewels, furs, and costumes that showed off her new physique, losing 80 pounds. Now Maria possessed the “aura” of the “diva” she’d become.
Instrumental in establishing her enduring mystique, though she too suffered betrayal, public humiliation, and grief when Ari married widowed Jackie Kennedy, “Jackie O”. She was never the same. As a huge fan of the former First Lady, it’s a testament to Charyn’s portrayal that I cringed not wanting to read anything unflattering of a different type of legendary woman.
Two women in Maria’s life stayed loyal and devoted to her. One Elvira de Hidalgo, a “veteran of La Scala,” we meet on the second opening line. Despite Elvira’s misgivings about taking Maria under her wings, in a matter of a few pages she’s crying, envisioning how she could “train this girl, teach her how to dance, how to move, how to sing” because the range of Maria’s expressiveness exceeded well beyond her years. To such a dramatic extent, she ends up sensationally inhabiting the characters she performs.
The second woman who stood faithfully by her side was Bruna, whose servitude as a maid and cook doesn’t come close to the vital roles she played as Maria’s companion, confidant, nurse, protector, trusted friend. She worked for Maria Callas without a salary during her lean, prosperous, and fading, fearful, ill years. Ironically, a Wikipedia page hasn’t been created for her, when you could read an entire novel devoted to her undying devotion.
When you see pictures of Maria, she’s often cuddling and walking with her poodle dogs. Her first one a gift, a toy poodle named Toy. She also cherished three canaries she practiced singing along with, alone. The lone canary on the dust jacket coincides with the first chapter “The Lone Canary.” Its length, at eighty-two pages (broken up by numbered sections), stands out among many of the novels published today.
The aria that became Maria’s calling card is “Casta Diva” from the opera Norma, sung with “such melancholy” and “variations in timbre and tone.” From Puccini’s Tosca, she sung, translated from the Italian, music that sums up the fullness of her life: “I lived for art, I lived for love.”
The last time I came across the operatic words “bel canto” was in 2001 (Bel Canto by Ann Patchett). Tells you opera is not an art form I follow as it’s not my taste in music. Doesn’t have to be yours either, to find Maria La Divina an intriguing read. By an author who intrigues too.
With more than fifty literary works to his name, simply based on Jerome Charyn’s literary output, you’d be right to assume his energy is reflected in fast-moving, spirited prose that rises to the occasion of his intense subject: Maria Callas, 20th century’s most celebrated “coloratura soprano,” famous for her Italian bel canto style. A “rare” voice, “rich, deep in emotion,” breathtakingly powerful.
Charyn “found literary inspiration at the movie theater" (see: https://lithub.com/jerome-charyn-on-f...). The Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris was also honored by the French Ministry of Culture as Commander of the Arts and Letters, recognizing him as a global ambassador for literature.
So what does Jerome Charyn want us to see and feel about Maria Callas? Instead of focusing on her later, declining years as Angelina Jolie portrayed in the 2024 movie Maria, his chronological approach traces the trajectory of her life. From a “duckling” dressed shabbily to her aggressive ambition, uphill battles, rejection, defiance, the height of her career, and the unraveling.
We meet the American-born (Astoria, Queens) opera singer at fifteen, two years after she’d studied at The Athens Conservatory. Pushed there by her tormenting, “madwoman,” craving attention Greek immigrant mother, estranged from Maria’s father. She weighed 200 pounds. Voracious in appetite and starved-for-intimacy.
She fought against many odds. Coming from poor beginnings, Maria lacked the elegance and beauty of a prima donna: “beak” of a nose, unruly hair, severely nearsighted. She endured pain as her feet swelled up badly, going on for a long time without proper fitting shoes an admirer custom-made for her, at last. She battled outsider prejudice for not being one of their own in some countries where she performed. Was swept up in the politics and cruelty of the WWII years from 1940 to 1943, when the Italians, followed by the Germans invaded Greece having fallen in love with a spy — wartime fiction less commonly seen.
As the novel unfolds, opera becomes her life. While she also immensely craved the passion, lust for love, the men in her life failed her in different ways.
The narrative follows Maria’s career with highly detailed history that seems to come from piecing together many elements from many resources to present a vivid picture of two sides of her life, professional and personal. Sacred Monster is one of the books written about her. The dichotomy in the title encapsulates our conflicting impressions of “the divine one.” Complicated, evoking the grandeur of a princess, a goddess on stage. In her private life, outside of her music she wasn’t disciplined, she was impulsive, reckless. Lonely at her highest and lowest, emotionally unable to fill an emptiness.
The effect is a novel that reads more historical than fictional. Without an author’s note (in my advanced reader copy) separating fact from fiction, it’s hard to discern the difference as a cast of unfamiliar characters from different countries crosses paths with Maria’s life. Some you can’t forget; others you might want to read from the perspective of the larger context of how many people and places her voice and theatrics touched lives. Even her big, “dark eyes” “could have eaten up half the world.” When you finish reading, you’ll be the judge if she feels a tragic figure as it seems she sacrificed for half the world.
Many referred to as loggionistis. An Italian word describing opera fanatics who sat in the gallery of the famed La Scala opera theater display a wild obsession for opera.
Men championed and sacrificed for her. None more profoundly affecting than her paparazzi-chasing affair with Aristotle Onassis. Their romance humiliated his wife as all three were often onboard his yacht Christina, named for one of their daughters. These were exceptionally tumultuous times since Maria was also married. To Battista Meneghini, a wealthy Italian brickmaker who lavished her with jewels, furs, and costumes that showed off her new physique, losing 80 pounds. Now Maria possessed the “aura” of the “diva” she’d become.
Instrumental in establishing her enduring mystique, though she too suffered betrayal, public humiliation, and grief when Ari married widowed Jackie Kennedy, “Jackie O”. She was never the same. As a huge fan of the former First Lady, it’s a testament to Charyn’s portrayal that I cringed not wanting to read anything unflattering of a different type of legendary woman.
Two women in Maria’s life stayed loyal and devoted to her. One Elvira de Hidalgo, a “veteran of La Scala,” we meet on the second opening line. Despite Elvira’s misgivings about taking Maria under her wings, in a matter of a few pages she’s crying, envisioning how she could “train this girl, teach her how to dance, how to move, how to sing” because the range of Maria’s expressiveness exceeded well beyond her years. To such a dramatic extent, she ends up sensationally inhabiting the characters she performs.
The second woman who stood faithfully by her side was Bruna, whose servitude as a maid and cook doesn’t come close to the vital roles she played as Maria’s companion, confidant, nurse, protector, trusted friend. She worked for Maria Callas without a salary during her lean, prosperous, and fading, fearful, ill years. Ironically, a Wikipedia page hasn’t been created for her, when you could read an entire novel devoted to her undying devotion.
When you see pictures of Maria, she’s often cuddling and walking with her poodle dogs. Her first one a gift, a toy poodle named Toy. She also cherished three canaries she practiced singing along with, alone. The lone canary on the dust jacket coincides with the first chapter “The Lone Canary.” Its length, at eighty-two pages (broken up by numbered sections), stands out among many of the novels published today.
The aria that became Maria’s calling card is “Casta Diva” from the opera Norma, sung with “such melancholy” and “variations in timbre and tone.” From Puccini’s Tosca, she sung, translated from the Italian, music that sums up the fullness of her life: “I lived for art, I lived for love.”
September 28, 2025
I don’t know much about opera but I enjoyed learning a little bit behind the scenes of what goes into putting a show together. Maria seemed to have a life filled with a lot of experiences but also some drama. She pushed her voice to the limit but made a name for herself in the process. I enjoy learning about new to me people of history.
Thank you @amazonpublishing @bellevueliterarypress @otrpr for the gifted copy.
Thank you @amazonpublishing @bellevueliterarypress @otrpr for the gifted copy.
September 25, 2025
I never knew much about Maria Callas before reading Maria La Divine, and what an amazing, eye-opening story it turned out to be. So much of this novel felt ripped from the lives of today’s female pop and media stars that I ended up visiting my local library to check out a biography—just to see how much of it was true.
And at every turn, when I reached a moment that reflected a specific event in her life, I found Charyn was spot-on with his facts. Although this is technically fiction, the storytelling is so immersive and the envisioning of private moments so vivid that it reads more like creative nonfiction. Is there a term for historical biographical fiction? If not, I think this book deserves its own shelf in the fiction aisle.
A must-read for anyone curious about Maria Callas, the emotional cost of fame, and the blurred lines between myth and memory.
Maria La Divine by Jerome Charyn is a dazzling blend of fact and fiction, offering readers an intimate portrait of Maria Callas that feels both mythic and deeply human. Set against the backdrop of opera’s golden age, this novel explores fame, vulnerability, and the emotional cost of being adored. If you love historical fiction, creative nonfiction, and stories that linger in the heart long after the final page, this one deserves a spotlight. This was a #RedReviews4You #fivestarfiction that makes belongs on the #WomensHistory shelf #mariacallas #mariacallasforever #SueShelfHistoricalFiction for #marialadivina and #amazingwoman #womenagainsttheodds
Thank you so much #jeromecharyn #bellevueliterarypress @bellevueliterarypress @amazonpublishing and @otrpr for sharing this amazing book with me!
And at every turn, when I reached a moment that reflected a specific event in her life, I found Charyn was spot-on with his facts. Although this is technically fiction, the storytelling is so immersive and the envisioning of private moments so vivid that it reads more like creative nonfiction. Is there a term for historical biographical fiction? If not, I think this book deserves its own shelf in the fiction aisle.
A must-read for anyone curious about Maria Callas, the emotional cost of fame, and the blurred lines between myth and memory.
Maria La Divine by Jerome Charyn is a dazzling blend of fact and fiction, offering readers an intimate portrait of Maria Callas that feels both mythic and deeply human. Set against the backdrop of opera’s golden age, this novel explores fame, vulnerability, and the emotional cost of being adored. If you love historical fiction, creative nonfiction, and stories that linger in the heart long after the final page, this one deserves a spotlight. This was a #RedReviews4You #fivestarfiction that makes belongs on the #WomensHistory shelf #mariacallas #mariacallasforever #SueShelfHistoricalFiction for #marialadivina and #amazingwoman #womenagainsttheodds
Thank you so much #jeromecharyn #bellevueliterarypress @bellevueliterarypress @amazonpublishing and @otrpr for sharing this amazing book with me!
October 23, 2025
The diva in her labyrinth…
I’ve been reading Jerome Charyn for fifteen years or so, first by accident (that first book I had no idea who he was), and then a dive into the catalogue, and then along with most of his new content in that span. So I have a pretty good idea of his instincts, his interests, and Maria La Divina certainly covers those. And yet it feels different, too.
Charyn loves his icons, and while he never tears at the fabric of the myth, he never keeps them precious, and it’s that odd mix, what might be called Charynesque, at this point, that is so often missing from the efforts of others. He loves his heroes scrappling along, and certainly Maria Callas does throughout her odyssey, never more so than when in the thrall of Aristotle Onassis, whom Charyn himself becomes infatuated with, who steals the narrative, who accentuates what it is Maria has by pointing out everything she never got, despite becoming inescapable…
And we get something truly original, here, a glimpse of the Martyr, or how I always saw the Widow depicted, someone who puts her slain husband to the challenge, and Aristotle, and Maria herself. What if Charyn wrote that story? Or maybe this is it? And how lucky we are to have finally gotten it.
That’s the thing about Jerome Charyn. He writes what no one else can.
I’ve been reading Jerome Charyn for fifteen years or so, first by accident (that first book I had no idea who he was), and then a dive into the catalogue, and then along with most of his new content in that span. So I have a pretty good idea of his instincts, his interests, and Maria La Divina certainly covers those. And yet it feels different, too.
Charyn loves his icons, and while he never tears at the fabric of the myth, he never keeps them precious, and it’s that odd mix, what might be called Charynesque, at this point, that is so often missing from the efforts of others. He loves his heroes scrappling along, and certainly Maria Callas does throughout her odyssey, never more so than when in the thrall of Aristotle Onassis, whom Charyn himself becomes infatuated with, who steals the narrative, who accentuates what it is Maria has by pointing out everything she never got, despite becoming inescapable…
And we get something truly original, here, a glimpse of the Martyr, or how I always saw the Widow depicted, someone who puts her slain husband to the challenge, and Aristotle, and Maria herself. What if Charyn wrote that story? Or maybe this is it? And how lucky we are to have finally gotten it.
That’s the thing about Jerome Charyn. He writes what no one else can.
October 12, 2025
It’s like being there with the singer and watching her go through her life.
This book is a wealth of knowledge about the singer Maria Callas. I felt like I was right there with the singer, going through her life and seeing how she handled the hurdles in her way. I liked how the author really delved deep into the singer’s life and loves. I was saddened for how her life turned out, but also feel this is something everyone who follows music should read. If you’re a fan of the current singers, a la Taylor Swift, then this book shows where the genesis of the music and celebrity business started.
The one thing I will say is that if the reader isn’t familiar with the many names dropped in this book, it can get a bit confusing to keep them all straight. That’s not to take away from the writing. The writing is fantastic and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. There are simply a lot of people to keep straight.
If you’re looking for a book about celebrity at the turn of the century, celebrity at its start and how that celebrity can affect people, then this is the book for you. The psychological look at Maria Callas and how she handled her life was great. give this book a try.
This book is a wealth of knowledge about the singer Maria Callas. I felt like I was right there with the singer, going through her life and seeing how she handled the hurdles in her way. I liked how the author really delved deep into the singer’s life and loves. I was saddened for how her life turned out, but also feel this is something everyone who follows music should read. If you’re a fan of the current singers, a la Taylor Swift, then this book shows where the genesis of the music and celebrity business started.
The one thing I will say is that if the reader isn’t familiar with the many names dropped in this book, it can get a bit confusing to keep them all straight. That’s not to take away from the writing. The writing is fantastic and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. There are simply a lot of people to keep straight.
If you’re looking for a book about celebrity at the turn of the century, celebrity at its start and how that celebrity can affect people, then this is the book for you. The psychological look at Maria Callas and how she handled her life was great. give this book a try.
September 21, 2025
Jerome Charyn, the Author of “Maria La Divina” “A Novel of Maria Callas” has written a powerful, intriguing, captivating, and memorable Historical Fiction, and Biographical Fiction novel. I appreciate how the author depicts a young Maria Callas as “ an ugly duckling. that turns into a swan”.When Maria was young, she had to wear thick glasses and was a big girl. It wasn’t until she would sing in her commanding and impressive voice, was she recognized as a powerhouse that made her into one of the world’s most valued opera singers. Maria grew up in poverty, and her mother was manipulative and competitive. With singing classes, hard work, Maria Callas not only used her voice, but her emotional attachment to make viewers weep as they watched her sing in operas. I appreciate that the author mentions her attachment to her birds and dogs. I learned many things about Maria Callas, that I was not aware of. Bravo to Jerome Charyn for the tremendous historical research he used for this well written book.
November 15, 2025
I have mixed feelings about this biography of opera diva Maria Callas.
I certainly learned a lot about the life of Callas. I’m just not sure I learned much about Callas the opera singer.
Callas is a difficult person to like and sometimes difficult to empathize with, but more importantly, I’m just not sure she’s that interesting. I tend to struggle with biographies of people who are more talented than interesting, because once the events precipitated by their talent have been narrated, there isn’t really anywhere worthy to go.
Callas is a tragic figure of sorts, certainly, but I wouldn’t call her a tragic hero. She’s more a talented and troubled woman, which is sad but not especially illuminating to read about.
I can’t fault the author for that, as he’s presenting her life as it was accurately, but I think a book more devoted to Callas’ opera performances or perhaps to the history of opera divas in general would have made for a better read.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
I certainly learned a lot about the life of Callas. I’m just not sure I learned much about Callas the opera singer.
Callas is a difficult person to like and sometimes difficult to empathize with, but more importantly, I’m just not sure she’s that interesting. I tend to struggle with biographies of people who are more talented than interesting, because once the events precipitated by their talent have been narrated, there isn’t really anywhere worthy to go.
Callas is a tragic figure of sorts, certainly, but I wouldn’t call her a tragic hero. She’s more a talented and troubled woman, which is sad but not especially illuminating to read about.
I can’t fault the author for that, as he’s presenting her life as it was accurately, but I think a book more devoted to Callas’ opera performances or perhaps to the history of opera divas in general would have made for a better read.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
September 21, 2025
Maria La Divina by Jerome Charyn presents a fictional account of Maria Callas. What a story! A seventeen-year old chunky, myopic transforms herself into the leading soprano of her time. The road turns and pivots into an uphill battle. World War II creates a back road and limits Maria’s goal to sing. But sing she must at all costs. The determination and courage of Maria lands her at La Scala in Italy and the Metropolitan Opera in America. But these feats came at great risks on Maria. Her voice captivated her listeners. And many important men wooed her: Bernardo Scarpia, Tito Gobbi, and Aristotle Onassis. The relationship with Onassis lasted from 1959 until 1968. This relationship continued even though Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy. The hard work involved in the world of a dedicated soprano involves costume fittings, wig fittings, endless hours of practice, and patience. Not an easy life. Charyn brings Maria to life in all her triumphs and failures.
September 10, 2025
As someone who has listened to the Maria Callas version of Casta Diva hundreds of times over the years and who religiously attends the opera, this book seemed made for me. But Maria is portrayed as a kind of friendless but talented monster who cares nothing about ANYONE ELSE and whose prodigious talent allows her to step on stage and perform an entire opera without a single rehearsal (Did she stand on stage while everyone else acted?). Charyn talks a lot about her canaries, surviving the Nazi takeover of Greece, her interactions with her difficult mother, the famous people she got to rub elbows with (Churchill, Grace Kelly), and her well-known, ill-fated affair with Aristotle Onassis. Although I loved Maria Callas, I didn't love all the over-dramatized snippets of her life, stories about her over-eating, and repetitions about audiences being astonished.
September 22, 2025
Do you like Opera? Have you been to a performance? I have only
been to a couple and don’t ever pull
up opera on my playlist, but I do appreciate it. I admire the talent and dedication the art requires. Even as someone who knows little about opera, I know the name Maria Callas. Maria La Divina by Jerome Charon tells her story expertly and beautifully.
Caryn’s book based on this iconic opera diva has been compared to a love song to
Callas, it really is. He humanized her and showed her strength as a woman and as a world acclaimed artist. I definitely googled some of her celebrity connections and moments in her life. The author just made it so interesting, I wanted to know more.
been to a couple and don’t ever pull
up opera on my playlist, but I do appreciate it. I admire the talent and dedication the art requires. Even as someone who knows little about opera, I know the name Maria Callas. Maria La Divina by Jerome Charon tells her story expertly and beautifully.
Caryn’s book based on this iconic opera diva has been compared to a love song to
Callas, it really is. He humanized her and showed her strength as a woman and as a world acclaimed artist. I definitely googled some of her celebrity connections and moments in her life. The author just made it so interesting, I wanted to know more.
August 31, 2025
This was a fascinating story about the life of Maria Callas, who at thirteen, began opera training in Greece. The author brings her story to life on the pages as a young teenager to her climb to stardom. She fought barriers to entry at houses to perform who found issues with her non traditional background and size. I loved her scandalous affairs, and the acelebrity circles. These elements had me “googling” while I was reading the novel. I was happy to have read about her life.
June 18, 2025
Omg what a great read! Thank you Bellevue for the advanced edition.
September 9, 2025
Loved the style of this - races through Maria Callas’ life with emotion and detail that leaves you heartbroken and yet exalted. Great detail and research
January 17, 2026
Maria La Divina is a compelling and deeply human portrait of one of the most enigmatic figures in cultural history. Jerome Charyn captures Maria Callas not only as an operatic legend, but as a complex woman shaped by hunger, exile, ambition, and emotional isolation. The narrative moves with intensity and intimacy, allowing readers to experience the fire, vulnerability, and contradictions that defined her life.
What sets this book apart is Charyn’s ability to strip away myth without diminishing greatness. The prose brings Callas’s defiance, charisma, and fragility into sharp focus, revealing the personal cost of artistic genius. By grounding the diva’s public triumphs in private struggle, Maria La Divina becomes more than a biography it becomes a meditation on fame, sacrifice, and survival. The book has strong appeal for literary readers, music lovers, and anyone drawn to complex, character-driven nonfiction.
What sets this book apart is Charyn’s ability to strip away myth without diminishing greatness. The prose brings Callas’s defiance, charisma, and fragility into sharp focus, revealing the personal cost of artistic genius. By grounding the diva’s public triumphs in private struggle, Maria La Divina becomes more than a biography it becomes a meditation on fame, sacrifice, and survival. The book has strong appeal for literary readers, music lovers, and anyone drawn to complex, character-driven nonfiction.
December 21, 2025
I was reading this book in a hospital waiting room when a doctor walked by and stopped in his tracks. “Maria Callas!” he exclaimed before rattling off a synopsis of her entire life. Truly, Callas is the most famous diva of bel canto in the world.
Jerome Charyn’s novel is a love song to Callas, a vivid portrait of a life filled with rejection and loss as well as fame and success.
My ignorance of the diva was profound. Maria, I discovered, was born in Manhattan to Greek parents. At age thirteen, she and her mother moved to Greece to study opera and two years later, Callas made her debut.
Her power was how she totally inhabited her roles, mastering the most challenging.
Her glamour was not natural, but hard won. A chubby teenager with spectacles and bad skin when she began singing, she was inspired by the gamine appeal of Audrey Hepburn to starve herself model thin, and she performed nearly blind without glasses.
She was unlucky in love. She married her manager who controlled her money. She later found passion with Aristotle Onassis, but after her divorce, he married Jackie Kennedy instead.
But what most shocked me was how Callas struggled to be accepted into the big opera houses. The Italians didn’t want a Greek American diva. After WWII, she returned to the United States to win acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera.
In later life, she struggled to control her voice, and cut back performances to be with Onassis. And she died far too young.
Charyn brings us inside Callas’s art. “I am only following the score, doing my best to reveal what the composer wanted,” she tells Jackie Kennedy. That ability to inhabit the mind of the composer meant her performances soared beyond what others could achieve.
Charyn is a master at weaving words that bring historical characters to life. His love for his subject offers readers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant artist who survived war, and contended with mistreatment by those she loved, to achieve greatness.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
Now listening to the audiobook.
Jerome Charyn’s novel is a love song to Callas, a vivid portrait of a life filled with rejection and loss as well as fame and success.
My ignorance of the diva was profound. Maria, I discovered, was born in Manhattan to Greek parents. At age thirteen, she and her mother moved to Greece to study opera and two years later, Callas made her debut.
Her power was how she totally inhabited her roles, mastering the most challenging.
Her glamour was not natural, but hard won. A chubby teenager with spectacles and bad skin when she began singing, she was inspired by the gamine appeal of Audrey Hepburn to starve herself model thin, and she performed nearly blind without glasses.
She was unlucky in love. She married her manager who controlled her money. She later found passion with Aristotle Onassis, but after her divorce, he married Jackie Kennedy instead.
But what most shocked me was how Callas struggled to be accepted into the big opera houses. The Italians didn’t want a Greek American diva. After WWII, she returned to the United States to win acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera.
In later life, she struggled to control her voice, and cut back performances to be with Onassis. And she died far too young.
Charyn brings us inside Callas’s art. “I am only following the score, doing my best to reveal what the composer wanted,” she tells Jackie Kennedy. That ability to inhabit the mind of the composer meant her performances soared beyond what others could achieve.
Charyn is a master at weaving words that bring historical characters to life. His love for his subject offers readers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant artist who survived war, and contended with mistreatment by those she loved, to achieve greatness.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
Now listening to the audiobook.
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