Product Description

Set among the women of a remote Alpine village, this novel spans most of the 20th century and puts at the heart of each chapter a different woman, at a point in her life when her long-suppressed desire of anger or jealousy flares briefly into vivid life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109527 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The setting for this poignant novel is Rosenau, an isolated Austrian village, and the story encompasses generations of villagers and their intimate lives. The magic of the novel lies in the author's ability to make the faraway seem familiar, even when it is tragic or brutal. Structured as short stories told from the viewpoints of different members of the village, the novel follows their intertwined lives from 1909 through 1977, layering story upon story to develop the village and the characters.

Lippi's characters are nothing short of wonderful. There is, for example, Johanna, whose heart is torn between her love for Francesco--a soldier hiding in the Austrian Alps--and her sister Angelika, who hides her dependence upon Johanna behind not-so-subtle reminders of familial duty. And there is Katharina, whose impulsiveness causes her to betray her two half-brothers for a ride in a Nazi motorcar, and Stante, who proves his worth not only in the Wainwright's workshop but also by his courage withstanding the Nazis. The character portrayals are based upon Lippi's own experiences of living in Austria for four years. You will hate for these stories to end.

Review
Reviewer: A reader from Old Greenwich, Connecticut , Sept 1999: This is an outstanding book. Lippi has an extraordinary ability to make you feel that you know these women. Her descriptions are so touching and evocative. I couldn't put down... even the second and third times I read it. I've encouraged everyone I know to read this excellent book and every single person loved it! GIVE IT A TRY! You won't be disappointed. Reviewer: A reader from New York , June 10, 1999: The women in these stories reminded me of the women I grew up with in rural Minnesota. The external details are different (and engrossing) but I still knew and understood and came to love them. I am reminded of Alice Munro. Reviewer: A reader from Newton, MA, October 12: HOMESTEAD is a beautiful, blossoming novel that will summon you back again and again. The stories are like pieces to a puzzle - unique and individual, but when joined together, complimentary in their own purposeful way. The result is a very poignant and vibrant image that stays in your mind's eye long after you've closed the book .

Rosenau is the setting for Lippi's novel, a remote alpine village in Austria, home to a small, isolated community whose experiences unfold through the book. Generations of women from the Wainwright clan; the Bent Elbow clan and the Bengat clan recount their tales of love, loss, desire and the horrors of war, stories that cover the best part of the 20th century. Lippi's prose is poetic and lyrical, written in the local Rosenau dialect, which contributes to the intimacy of the novel. Village life is dictated by weather and the cycles of the farm and dairy. The women's interwoven stories reveal hidden depths to a small community and lay bare its secrets and lies. The author is skilled in drawing readers into this alien landscape and lifestyle, making them feel as if the characters could be their families and friends. A novel that gets under your skin - the writing is poignant and evocative and the characters remain alive long after the story is complete. (Kirkus UK)

A debut collection of 12 linked stories portraying the life of a small Austrian village and its inhabitants over the course of the 20th century. Rosenau is not the sort of place that you can expect to find on a map, let alone in many novels. A remote hamlet in the Alpine foothills of western Austria, it is ancient but not especially picturesque and would probably disappoint any tourist who happened across it. Nearly all of its people are farmers, farmers' wives, and farmers' children, and the few civic officials who reside there - the priest, the schoolteacher, the postmistress, and so on - deal with farmers all day long and become inevitably agrarian themselves. Externally uneventful, it's an intensely domestic environment and most of its dramas occur within one household or another. Lippi understands and makes good use of the stories there, which occur among people who know or are related to everyone else and become marvelously cyclical and haunting. A lover's postcard addressed only to Anna Fink arrives in 1909, for example, and causes confusion because there are at least three women of that name in town. A lonely spinster working her brother's farm in 1916 gives shelter to an Italian deserter and is plagued by him after he leaves, while other women somehow have to survive the deaths or mutilations of their sons or husbands. In 1938, a Nazi medical functionary arrives in search of two retarded brothers, soon to be "transferred" to an institution elsewhere; the brothers are turned over to their deaths by their loving but ignorant sister. Years later, the inhabitants find themselves haunted - sometimes literally - by those who died or disappeared at the front. Many of the women, unable to find a man to marry after the war, become sharp-eyed but wistful observers of the town and its life - and narrators of its stories. Delicate and a trifle introspective, but very fine and moving. Lippi has a clear eye and a sharp tongue. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Publisher
From the American reviews for Homestead
‘A novel of great depth, compassion and tenderness.’ New York Times

‘Beautifully written, rich in evocative detail of a lost, unique world.’ Washington Post

‘Rosina Lippi is one of those impassioned storytellers who moves us to tears and makes us grateful for it. Reading Homestead, I felt some deep, tender part of me touched and made stronger. It is a heartbreakingly beautiful piece of work.’ Dorothy Allison

‘Gently, compassionately, Lippi interweaves these women’s stories down the decades, leaving an indelible impression of a rare and special place.’ Boston Globe

‘Lippi’s eloquent descriptions bring to life a world alien to the modern one, yet brimming with emotions and events of universal understanding. An outstanding read.’ Booklist

‘In Rosenau, Rosina Lippi gives us not only a village and its life, whole, complex and alive – she gives us our friends and neighbours and secrets. Her clear prose has the weight and tender history of old silver and the tang of stainless steel.’ Amy Bloom

‘An intricately braided narrative about a place that will be, for most readers, at first foreign and then familiar. Homestead is a book of marvels.’ Charles Baxter

Customer Reviews

subtle, insightful, moving
A wonderful and very surprising look at a small community high in the alps and the lives of women who live there. Their day to day existance is different from mine in everyway and at the same time they have so much in common with the women I know. Much food for thought. I read this after I read the novel that won the Orange Prize (The Idea of Perfection). I preferred this novel for its depth and breadth. It is not so accessible as the other novel but it is far more rewarding in the long run.

A wonderful and unexpected suprise
Having never heard or Ms Lippi I was very pleasantly suprised by her book. She weaves her characters and themes over generations and keeps you enthralled the whole way. This is a gentle story(s) told with insight into women,people and community as a whole. Once you finish the book its sheer scope in terms of the female experience leaves you slightly breathless. There are definite similarities between this book and Hannah's Daughter's by Marianne Fredriksson, although of the 2 this is the more all-encompassing. It reminded me at times of a fable and Ms Lippi certainly comes across as a gifted story-teller.

A portrait of life in the Austrian alps - perfectly captured
What a wonderful book! It takes me back to my years spent in the Austrian alps in a small community. Rosina Lippi captures the beauty of the landscape, the hardship of the existence, the closeness of the people and, at the same time, she manages to convey the sense of claustrophobia that can come from living life in such an insular and isolated community.

The affair between one of the main characters and her lover, a deserter from the Italian army, is beautifully drawn.

A really original novel and as far removed from chic-lit as it is possible to imagine. As soon as I had finished this book I wanted to start reading it again. Truly satisfying.