Dante's Daughter
Gr. 10-12. As in Heuston'sThe Shakeress(2002), the protagonist in this historical novel is a strong young woman who chooses her own way. The setting is early fourteenth-century Italy and France, and the narrator is Antonia Alighieri, the daughter of the great writer Dante. The story begins when Antonia, five years old, is at home with her bitter, abandoned mother. It then follows her as a young teen in Paris with her brilliant, self-absorbed father, and culminates after she returns to the artistic family-community in Siena, Italy, where she struggles to find work, love, and independence. Heuston has clearly done her research, but the wealth of historical, political, and artistic detail nearly overwhelms the story. What will hold readers is the honest family picture; the gifted father's dedication to his work and himself truly hurts his wife and daughter. Antonia's struggle as an artist also provides a fascinating glimpse of early feminism--a working commune might be an alternative to a convent, and a woman finds love without just being "a luscious peach ready to be picked."Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved