Nina's Friend Comments

Nina Romano’s The Secret Language of Women is a fascinating saga that takes place at the turn of the 20th century, just as the boxer rebellion gets underway in China. This historical novel is a love story, a cross-cultural feast including recipes from a sea-faring Italian chef, Chinese herbal medicine and beautiful descriptions of China’s flora, the clash between classes and religions of the time, and the challenges faced by a strong, young, Eurasian woman attempting to determine her own fate. Romano is a poet, and her skill is evident in the imagery of the characters’ interior lives, their spiritual quests, and the every day world through which they travel. The secret language of the title is not only the language that Zhou Bin Lian, the main character records her diary in and shares with the few women who work to save her, but also a metaphor for the timeless things that women of heart share. Nina Romano is such a woman. The Secret Language of Womenis a complex, broad-reaching and memorable read.

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of Even in Darkness

Thanks, Nina.
I'm a retired FIU prof (University Park Campus from 1990-2012, too. have a recommendation of a book that may be quite interesting for you. It's my translation Antal Szerb's "Traveler and the Moonlight." The novel is set in Italy, and it's about a 36-year-old man who escapes his wife on their honeymoon, and wanders from Umbria to Rome searching for the "gate of the dead" and obsessing about his adolescent sex games that become all too real and fatally erotic as he nears is abyss. Last year, the New York Times Review of Books designated the British version of the book "Journey by Moonlight" as a "Classic." I am stunned. The British version is offensive to women and the language could not be any more stilted. I'd love to have your take on it. Best Wishes, Peter
http://www.approaching-my-literature....