Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

When I first heard about Kate Forsyth's book Bitter Greens just before it was released here in Australia last year I was instantly intrigued! A retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale mixed in with life at the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV and Renaissance Venice - yes please! Of course, combining these three different elements could either work spectacularly or end up in a jumbled mess. Fortunately, Kate Forsyth's writing skills mean that it turns out to be a great success.

The novel opens with the banishment of Charlotte-Rose de la Force whose status as a blood relative of the King is not enough to save her from banishment from his court following a series of ill advised love affairs. In addition to the affairs, Charlotte-Rose also writes about the going ons of the court anonymously and  she is also known to be a fine wit, but not always for the restraint to know when to not take that step too far when lampooning the members of the court. She is also a former Huguenot, having converted to Catholicism under extreme political pressure, and in order to avoid some of the persecution that is being visited upon others of her faith. From her place in the convent, Charlotte looks back on her life from the very first time she met the King, to her life as maid in waiting in the court, the politics that surrounded her on every side, religious persecution, her love affairs and so much more.

When she arrives at the convent, Charlotte-Rose is stripped of all of her belongings. Whilst she will not be forced to take her vows as a nun until she truly feels the calling to do so, her life will be austere with little to no comfort. After struggling in her new environment, one of the other nuns takes her under her wing. Sister Seraphina is the gardener and takes Charlotte-Rose out with her. Soon the two women are talking while they are gardening and Sister Seraphina begins to tell Charlotte-Rose the story of Margherita, a young girl in Venice.

When her mother was in labour, she was craving salad greens and so her husband snuck into a neighbour's garden and is caught stealing. The owner, La Strega Bella, extracts a promise from the man. In exchange for not chopping of his hand for thieving, he can keep the bitter greens, but when she comes to take the child he must pay the ultimate price by giving her up.

The family lives in fear of the day coming when La Strega Bella claims their lovely daughter Margherita, and when it does they try to bargain with her. Her mind is set though and Margherita is stolen from her family, placed in a convent to be educated and told that her parents never loved her. Margherita's only comfort is in singing and music and she has the voice of an angel, but even this is not to be her long term home. Once again La Strega Bella comes and this time takes the young and beautiful red-haired girl to a tall tower built on the shores of a lake. Here, Margherita is to live alone with her only company to be the monthly visit from the witch. In order to gain access, the witch requires Margherita to let down her long, long hair so that she can climb up it - she is the Rapunzel that we know from fairy tales.

I love the whole story within a story concept and Forsyth is able to smoothly alternate the story between 17th century France and 16th century Venice with great skill. In due course, we get a third story too - that of the courtesan Selena Leonelli. She too is a beautiful woman who has tempestuous relationships with her lovers, most notably the artist Tiziano for whom she is a kind of muse.  Now, thanks to an apprenticeship with a witch, Selena is known as La Strega Bella and she has discovered the secret of staying young and beautiful and she is determined to stay that way no matter what the cost!

Whilst this story contains the bones of a familiar story - our Rapunzel is stuck in her tower by a horrible witch and we know that in due course that a handsome prince will show up to play his part (even though it is not necessarily in the way that you expect) - it is in the details that Forsyth's tale excels and in the way that the three stories combine as a whole. The story is emotionally engaging on so many levels. For example, the first time I realised how Margherita's hair got to be long enough to be used as a ladder, I gasped in horror.  There is an earthiness to the story telling that is engaging - it is by turns shocking, fun, sensuous, and filled with twists and turns that keep the reader engaged from beginning to end.  Whether you love fairy tale retellings, historical fiction or both, this is exceptional storytelling and I highly recommend this book! I am really looking forward to reading this author's next book!

Rating 4.5/5

P.S Above left is the Australian cover which I loved, and on the bottom right is the gorgeous UK cover! I am seriously tempted to buy the UK version so that I have them both.

Tour Details

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/bittergreensvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #BitterGreensVirtualTour
Kate Forsyth's website
Kate Forsyth on Facebook
Kate Forsyth on Twitter

Synopsis

Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from court by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. She is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of Bitter Greens ...

After Margherita’s father steals a handful of greens—parsley, wintercress and rapunzel—from the walled garden of the courtesan, Selena Leonelli, they give up their daughter to save him from having both hands cut off.

Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1513 and still inspiring him at the time of his death, sixty-one years later. Called La Strega Bella, Selena is at the centre of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.

Locked away in a tower, growing to womanhood, Margherita sings in the hope someone will hear her. One day, a young man does...

Three women, three lives, three stories, braided together to create a compelling story of desire, obsession, black magic, and the redemptive power of love.

Kate Forsyth on Why I Love Fairy Tale Retellings

Today we are pleased to welcome Kate Forsyth to Historical Tapestry for the first stop on her Bitter Greens blog tour! I am super excited to host Kate for a couple of reasons. The first is that she is an Aussie author and the second is that I loved her book, which you will see when I post my review tomorrow!

Kate is here to tell us why she loves fairy tale retellings. Welcome Kate!

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I have loved fairy tales since I was a little girl.

I was first given a book of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ when I was seven, and in hospital. I had been cruelly savaged by a dog as a baby and spent the first ten years of my life in and out of hospital, suffering high fevers and seemingly endless operations to repair a damaged tear duct. 

Reading that book of fairy tales were such an escape for me, and yet, also a comfort.

I could imagine myself riding a winged horse, soaring free of my narrow white hospital bed, escaping to have marvellous adventures somewhere else. 

The world of fairy tales was filled with beauty and mystery and romance and strangeness, all the things my hospital ward was lacking. In fairy tales, blinded princes were healed as I wished to be. In fairy tales, imprisoned maidens won their way free. 

I read that collection of fairy tales to tatters, and was always hungry for more. 

One day, when I was about ten, I discovered a book called The Glass Slipper by Eleanor Farjeon on my school library bookshelf. I began reading it as I walked home from school and was instantly entranced. It’s a retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale and is full of charm and whimsy. I was so engrossed I walked straight past the end of my street and could possibly have kept on walking for miles, if a neighbour had not driven past and honked me back to the real world. 

That book has been such a talisman for me all of my life that I named my own daughter Eleanor (after the writer), nicknamed Ella for short (after the heroine). 

That book began my love of fairy tale retellings. A year or so later, I read The Stone Cage by Nicholas Stuart Gray, a retelling of ‘Rapunzel’ told from the point of view of the witch’s cat. Of all the fairy tales I loved, ‘Rapunzel’ one resonated with me the most – perhaps because I too had been a young girl locked away from the world, longing for escape, perhaps because the injuries to my eye meant that for long periods of time, I was half-blind and in pain, as the prince had been.

I began to imagine writing my own retelling of Rapunzel before I had even finished reading the book. I love The Stone Cage, and Nicholas Stuart Gray is, I think, one of the greatest children’s writers ever. Nonetheless, I needed my own retelling of the tale to be from Rapunzel’s point of view, and to give some sense of the terrible loneliness, fear and despair she must have endured. 

When I was twelve or thirteen, I read When We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, by C.S. Lewis. I had found it on my great-aunt’s bookshelf while staying there one summer, and I read the whole book, cover to cover, while lying on the floor on my stomach behind her over-stuffed tapestry armchair. It was an utter revelation. Dark and strong and full of anger, it showed how well-known tales – in this case, the story of Cupid and Psyche – could be turned utterly inside-out when told from the point of view of the supposed villain of the tale. 

I began to imagine writing part of my own Rapunzel retelling from the point of view of the witch. She had always puzzled me. Why had she wanted to lock Rapunzel in the tower? What happened to her after the story ended? 

As I grew up I devoured the work of Robin McKinley, reading her wonderful retellings Rose Daughter, Spindle’s End, Beauty and Deerskin. I also loved Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, North Child by Edith Pattou (also published as East), and Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. 

Then I read Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, the first time I had read a retelling of a fairy tale written for adults. I knew at once that was what I wanted to do – write a retelling of ‘Rapunzel’ for an adult audience.

For me, it was always a story about sexual desire and power. I never understood how it could be told as a pretty bedtime story for little children, with pictures of a smiling girl combing her hair in a tiny tower wreathed with roses. I knew, gut-deep, that Rapunzel was a far darker story.

So I began to think seriously about my own retelling. It took me seven years to write Bitter Greens – a powerfully symbolic number in fairy tales – and the book ended up very different to how I had first imagined it. As well as telling the story from the point of view of the maiden in the tower, and the witch who put her there, I also tell the story of the woman who first wrote the tale – the utterly fascinating 17th century French writer, Charlotte-Rose de la Force.

So why do I love such retellings? Because they illuminated the dark and hidden depths of fairy tales, the most mysterious and magical of all narratives.

Tour Details

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/bittergreensvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #BitterGreensVirtualTour

Kate Forsyth's website

Kate Forsyth on Facebook

Kate Forsyth on Twitter

Winner of Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

I am a little late posting the winner of Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth as I didn't want to interupt the Titanic Week posts!

The lucky winner is

Sam from Tiny Library

Sam, you are in for a treat. I am reading this book at the moment and absolutely loving it! Look for an email from me soon.

Kate Forsyth on her favourite books set in Venice (includes international giveaway)

Today we are pleased to welcome Australian author Kate Forsyth to Historical Tapestry. In honour of her newly released book, Bitter Greens, she is sharing her Favourite Books Set in Venice.

Bitter Greens is a fairy tale retelling of the Rapunzel story which is set in 17th century France and Venice.

We are also very pleased to be able to giveaway a copy of Bitter Greens, and it is an international giveaway! See the end of the post for details of how to enter.

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My Favourite Books Set in Venice

I don’t remember the first time I read about Venice. I seem to have longed to go there all of my life. The combination of enchanting beauty, ancient stones steeped in story, and the whiff of danger was irresistible. A book only needs a picture of Venice on its cover, or the mention of its name in its title, and I will want to read it.

I have always wanted to set a book in Venice, partly to give me an excuse to travel there again, and so my latest novel Bitter Greens is set partly in Renaissance Venice and partly in France in the 17th century. And yes, the cover has a gorgeous picture of Venice on it ...

Here are my favourite books set in Venice:

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

An absolutely fabulous historical novel, In the Company of the Courtesan tells the story of the escape of a courtesan from the pillage of Rome in 1527 – she flees to Venice and hopes to start a new life there. The story is told from the point of view of her dwarf. Sarah Dunant features the painter Titian and his most famous painting ‘The Venus of Urbino’, which is something I do in my own novel Bitter Greens, but we have completely different explanations for the story behind the painting. One of my all-time favourite books from one of my all-time favourite authors.

The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips

Another parallel narrative, moving between contemporary times and the early 17th century, The Rossetti Letter is a fabulous read. Claire Donovan is doing her Ph.d on the Venetian courtesan, Alessandra Rossetti, who wrote a letter to the Council of Ten warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow the Venetian Republic in 1618. The narrative moves smoothly back and forth between the two protagonists, and is filled with romance, intrigue, mystery and suspense.

A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century by Andrea di Robilant

A long-lost packet of letters, found by the author's father in the attic of a palace on the Grand Canal, reveals a passionate and forbidden love affair between a Venetian nobleman and a half-English commoner. The world of 1750s Venice is brought vividly to life - masked balls, gondolas on the canals, gambling, dancing, making love in secret gardens. I really loved this book.

The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato

This novel has a parallel narrative, with one story taking place in 17th century Venice and the other taking place in contemporary times. Much of the story is set on Murano Island where the glassblowers worked and lived. It’s a quick-paced, vivid and absorbing historical mystery, with some fascianting details about the art of glass-blowing.

The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

John Berendt is best known for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. This book works in the same way, being a non-fiction book that uses fictive devices and a strong personal voice to bring to life a place, a time, and the people who inhabit them. It describes the events following the burning of the historic La Fenice opera theatre in 1996, as well as charting the stories of other writers and artists who were fascinated by Venice, including Henry James, John Singer Sargent, and Ezra Pound. A really fascinating, colourful book.

The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice by Laurel Corona

This novel is set in the Pieta, a Venetian hospital for founding children, during the time when Vivaldi was choir master. I had never heard of the Pieta before, and was so inspired by this novel that I decided to set a section of my own book Bitter Greens there. Abandoned babies were taken in by the nuns, and trained to be exquisite singers and musicians.

Many of them would never leave the Pieta in their lifetime, singing in the church behind high wooden screens. A really intriguing look at an unknown part of Venetian history.

Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick

This is another book set in the Pieta during the time of Vivaldi. I really loved this book – the writing was fluid and vivid, and the characters came dancing to life. The story about how the author came to write the book is just as fascinating – I’d really recommend this book too.

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi

One day, in Venice, Marlena de Blasi fell in love with a stranger. She decides to move to Venice to be with her new love, and this book charts (with lots of wonderful recipes and descriptions of food) her romantic adventures thereafter.

Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers

After her dearest friend dies, retired history teacher Julia Garnet does something completely out of character: she rents an apartment in Venice for six months.
An atheist, a Communist, and a virgin, Julia finds herself falling beneath Venice’s spell. She makes friends and falls in love for the first time in her life. Interwoven with her journey of self-discovery is the tale of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael, which she sees painted on a fresco in a church. A really beautiful, unusual novel.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

Donna Leon is an American crime writer who lives in Venice, and has written a whole series of books featuring the endearing, food-and-wine loving detective Guido Brunetti. Death At La Fenice is the first in the series, and it’s really worth reading them in order because the book is as much about Brunetti’s wife, family, and friends as it is about solving crimes in modern-day Venice. I love this books and buy them religiously – I have never once been disappointed.




Then, just quickly, my favourite children’s books set in Venice:

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Absolutely wonderful, a must read book!

The Madman of Venice by Sophie Masson

A marvellous romantic adventure set in 1602, and filled with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns. Sophie Masson is an Australian writer too, though her imagination is never bound by geographic limitations.

Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli

My favourite novel by Donna Jo Napoli, this slim book bring the life of 16th century Venice vividly to life

Stravaganza – The City of Masks by Mary Hoffman

A time travel book to a magical city very much like Venice ...

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Kate Forsyth is the bestselling and award-winning author of 25 books for children and adults, translated into 10 languages.

Her latest book for adults, Bitter Greens, interweaves a retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale with the scandalous life story of one of its first tellers, the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de la Force. Australian Bookseller & Publisher described Bitter Greens as “magnificent” and said that Kate “has an extraordinary imagination”.

You can read more about her at http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/ .

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Thanks to Kate for sharing her favourites with us. And now, a chance to share Bitter Greens with all of you.

In order to be entered into the draw leave a comment below sharing either your favourite read about Venice OR your favourite fairy tale!

Rules of the giveaway:

- to participate, just leave a comment sharing your favourite read about Venice or your favourite fairytale and your email address

- one entry per household

- open WORLDWIDE

- closes 15th April midnight GMT