My second book, The Stone Boudoir; Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily, takes the reader to small mountain towns in the Sicilian hinterland and on the flanks of the volcano Etna. The Stone Boudoir is available at your local book store, or online from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. A sample chapter is available online at Barnes and Noble.

Good news! The first chapter of The Stone Boudoir appears in the anthology, "The Italian American Reader; A Collection of Outstanding Fiction, Memoirs, Journalism, Essays and Poetry," edited by Bill Tonelli, with a foreword by Nick Tosches. (William Morrow, March 2003)

The Stone Boudoir is available in a Dutch translation published by Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers (Amsterdam and Antwerpen), translated by Evelien Chayesand in a Hebrew edition published in Israel by Am Oved Publisher Ltd. (Tel Aviv)

..."Delightful....Among the many pleasures that await the reader are descriptions of Sicilian street food, lone shepherds who still play the Sicilian bagpipes, and religious festivals that form the heart and soul of the people...The Stone Boudoir is no ordinary travel book. Rather it is a luminous portrait of a time and a place, interspersed with a wonderful cast of characters." --Chicago Tribune, Feb. 3, 2002.

“At one point, Maggio spends a night in ‘the ultimate stone house,’ a cave in the Nebrodi Mountains in north-central Sicily, where the naturally temperature-controlled, often wood-paneled apartments are furnished with dining-room credenzas, VCR's and microwaves. These dwellings, like all the Sicilian homes Maggio visits, are cleaned furiously and proudly by members of a fierce army of Sicilian housewives. One tells Maggio that her cave was too dark until the morning ''I sent my husband off to work, found his sledgehammer'' and ''made the window into a door.'' -- New York Times, June 2, 2002.

"Maggio's lyrical prose evokes sumptuous cuisine...and breathtaking scenery.... Thoughtful character sketches render intriguing personalities.... All these narrative strands are woven together in a compelling meditation on Sicilian culture...." --- Kirkus Reviews, Dec. 1, 2001

"Mostly her tone will be familiar to readers of Mattanza, her vivid account of the epic Mediterranean tuna hunts. Curious, light-hearted and enthusiastic, Maggio roams the villages of Etna and the Madonie Mountains as though hunting butterflies. Each detail is worthy of scrutiny, from the way Sicilian women hang out their wash to the peculiar placement of Sicilian kitchens on the top floor of the house. While her fascination with the bedrock of Sicilian communities is evident, it's her quick understanding of the residents' humanity that brings the landscapes to life in this engaging travel memoir." -- Publishers Weekly, Feb. 4, 2002

"Particularly fascinating are her encounters with Sicilian women, whose closely scrutinized lives are rooted in centuries of tradition....The Stone Boudoir gives lyrical illumination to an enduring landscape and culture." -- Donna Marchetti in Islands magazine, April 2002.

"...a mosaic of an older way of life perched on the edges of modernity." The Boston Globe , June 16, 2002

A review by  The Seattle Times	A review by The Los Angeles Times	A review by The New York Times
Full review by The Boston Globe	A review by Eve Zibart at Bookpage.com

I have posted some new photos that are connected to chapters in this book.

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My first book, Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily, takes you to the Sicilian island of Favignana to witness a thousand-year-old ritual.

The Christian Science Monitor named Mattanza one of the year's "most notable" non-fiction books, and the Los Angeles Times called it one of "the year's best books."

To preview my book, and purchase it at a discount, click on the Amazon.com logo. If you prefer Barnes & Noble, you can click on the logo below.

Mattanza (Penguin paperback) and Stone Boudoir (Headline paperback) are available in Great Britain from Amazon.com at www.amazon.co.uk

Mattanza is published in Germany by Diana Verlag. Mattanza: Liebe, Tod und das Meer is available through Amazon.com's German site at www.amazon.de

Mattanza and Het Stenen Boudoir were published in Holland by Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers (Amsterdam and Antwerpen).

 

Theresa Maggio             

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I live and write in Vermont , very happily, but every so often I need a dose of Sicilian sun.

 

 

 

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Since 11 March 2006