In Bruno's Shadow - (World Prose) by Tony Ardizzone (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A young Croatian woman travels to Međugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, site of apparitions of the Virgin Mary, where she meets an angel and witnesses a miracle. Twenty years later, after living in a cloistered convent, she travels to Rome where her habit of prayer transforms the lives of seven strangers. Their stories intertwine and connect in this portrayal of several Roman churches, the art of Bernini, Caravaggio, and Borromini, and Rome's rich architectural history.

Review Quotes

A heart-rending and intricate novel that unfurls from one woman's fleeting encounters with strangers in an exquisitely rendered Rome. In Bruno's Shadow delves into the questions that shape our lives in ways that are profound, moving, and at times downright funny.

--Gerri Brightwell, author of Turnback Ridge

A novel of great complexity infused with empathy and insight, where matters of the spirit are anchored securely within a framework of American contemporary realism. With a menagerie of travelers crisscrossing superimposed maps of Rome and Dubrovnik, its themes -- the space between the rational and the mystery, and the deathly conflict between free thought and thinking deemed heretical -- make In Bruno's Shadow a novel for this moment.

--Adria Bernardi, author of Benefit Street

A true masterpiece with all the beauty of [Ardizzone's] previous work yet so very unique. In Bruno's Shadow catapults readers to a full immersion in Rome (as well as Dubrovnik and Medjugorje) amidst all that is beautiful and, equally, all that is terrible.. [This] kind of a reading experience is a pure gift from the author to us all.

-- "Ovunque Siamo"

An exquisite novel, elegantly written, as well as compassionate and exact in its observations of its characters' moments of grace and connection. Kaleidoscopic and immersive, In Bruno's Shadow is a truly international novel brimming with incidents at once magical and wholly plausible.

--Christine Sneed, author of Little Known Facts

OK, this novel is brilliant. I marvelled at the depth and complexity of feeling and history, and the faith that permeates the text. Actually, brilliant, as in diamonds, doesn't say it; say magnitude, like in stars.

--David Bradley, author of The Chaneysville Incident

Rome is mother of exiles and outcasts in Tony Ardizzone's In Bruno's Shadow. Both a spiritual journey and a political inquiry, this remarkable novel presents Rome as a character in itself. Fittingly, the city's divine architecture shapes the book's action. Each chapter forms a madonella, a street shrine in which Ardizzone's diverse pilgrims confess their sins and express their hopes.

--Anthony Di Renzo, author of Trinàcria: A Tale of Bourbon Sicily

"A master wordsmith, he combines sophisticated philosophical thinking with succinct descriptions of art, architecture and nature. Compelling dialogue as well as narrative that's smooth and pleasing to the eye and ear demonstrate that he remains one of Italian America's best storytellers." --Fred Gardaphe, Fra Noi