The Battle of the Villa Fiorita/The Greengage Summer/An Episode of Sparrows

by Rumer Godden

Collection of three Rumer Godden Novels

Genres: Fiction

539 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Margaret Rumer Godden was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably Black Narcissus in 1947 and The River in 1951.
A few of her works were co-written with her elder sister, novelist Jon Godden, including Two Under the Indian Sun, a memoir of the Goddens' childhood in a region of India now part of Bangladesh.

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful old novel about children who set out to bring their "wayward" mother home after she's fallen in love with another man and moved to a villa in Italy. Godden is a master when it comes to depicting the lives and thoughts of young people, and after a lengthy backstory this novel plunges into the chaos of a mismatched "family" in transition. Of course, the descriptions of Lake Garda and the villa's gardens are beautifully detailed, too. There is no neat and tidy resolution here and all, not just the children who stage a hunger strike, suffer to some degree. This is the second novel I've read by Godden and both have been excellent. An Episode of Sparrows is next.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read / reviewed these individually, but this is the edition I have on my shelf. It is a fantastic collection of Rumer Godden's "coming-of-age" stories. I loved them all.