Torregreca: Life, Death, and Miracles in a Southern Italian Village

by Ann Cornelisen, Frances Mayes (Foreword by)

IN 1959 ANN CORNELISEN came to the impoverished region of Basilicata. A young, unmarried Protestant woman, she found herself in a tradition-bound, male-dominated Catholic world. She smoked, drove a car, occasionally drank at the village bar, and quickly became the object of disapproving gossip. With aplomb and tough-minded determination, Cornelisen established a school and gained the acceptance, if not always the approval, of the community. In this absorbing memoir, she renders the people, landscape, and vexing social ills of her adopted home with candor and compassion.

Genres: Travel, Italy, History, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Ann Cornelisen is best known as the author of several books detailing the landscape and culture of southern Italy. She first went to Italy in 1954 with plans of studying archaeology in Rome. However, after meeting Giovanna "Gianna" Thompson, a representative of the British Save the Children Fund, the course of her life was forever changed. She traveled with Gianna to many small, impoverished towns in central and southern Italy documenting her experiences in her journals, letters home, and on film. She eventually made Ortona in the Abruzzo region her permanent home, but spent much of her time studying the town of Tricarico in Basilicata, which was the focus of her first book, Torregreca. Cornelisen spent the rest of her professional career in Italy and published three more nonfiction books about the country as well as two novels.

(from http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/...)

Reviews

[Graham Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delicious little surprise. I was expecting a sentimental and nostalgic tale of social worker visiting quaint Italian village in the 60's - a Mediterranean "Heartbeat". This book is so much more interesting than that. Sure there are the colourful local priests, policemen and politicians one expects - but Ann Cornelisen brings a sharp mind and pen is as fresh and relevant now as when this book was written. This could be a text book for young social workers on how to be compassionate whilst maintaining a professional detachment. And it would make a GREAT tv show!

[Ginny Thurston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book about southern Italy in the years following World War 2. It is very detached and objectively told by a young American social worker trying help the poverty- stricken mountainous areas. She struggles with politics,religion, male-dominance, and superstitions. Her descriptions of the area and characters who live there are very vivid and realistic. There is no romanticism or sentimentality, she just tells the truth as she sees it and eventually learns to love the people and the town.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably a 3.5 Star book for me. It is about a social worker who comes to an Italian village to oversee the building of a housing project and a nursery school. She causes quite a stir being a Protestant single female in a devout catholic community. Also some of her attempts to modernize the town causes some hassle in a community that values tradition.

I definitely admired the author’s tenacity in overcoming some of the barriers she faced.

Definitely worth a read.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Change can be achieved in some of the most unlikely sources. The betterment of all is not an easy path.

[Bob Conklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful account of life and people in a remote southern Italian village in the 1950s.

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started it and determined to finish. The review was way better than the book.