Book review : Mona Lisa's daughter

 

Mona Lisa’s Daughter
by Belle Ami
417 pages, Tema N Merback Publishing
Genre : Historical Fiction


"Life is a brief dream, and love is the only thing that makes it worthwhile".

Why is the smile of Mona Lisa so mysterious in the painting? Valentina is put in a convent by her mother when she is pregnant after she is raped. She works helping the librarian and discovers letters over 400 years old - correspondence between Da Vinci and Mona Lisa. As the librarian wants her to make copies of it in ink and print, she sets about doing it.Once Valentina has the baby, she is convinced by the nuns to give up her baby daughter for adoption and a young Jewish couple adopt her baby. She is forced to return and her mother decides to marry her to her rapist and Valentina leaves her home and becomes a nun in Florence.. But what has Da Vinci's correspondence 400 years ago with Lisa got to do with Valentina and the second world war? The author answers this and much more in her book, 'Mona Lisa's daughter'.

Set in Florence the story entwines the story of Leonardo Da Vinci and Valentina in alternating chapters as they live four centuries apart. The story tells of the history of Florence during the wars during Da Vinci's  time  and Valentina's time. It also talks about the friendship and love between the elderly and gay Leonardo Da Vinci and  young Signora Lisa del Giocondo aka Mona Lisa who was married and had 5 children and whose husband commissioned the portrait. 

It flits all over Italy - Rome, Milan, Pisa and  Florence. By using two timelines and weaving them together, the author amuses the reader with the rivalry between Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti  with Raphael Sanzio and Sandro Botticelli making an appearance apart from Machiavelli and explorer Amerigo Vespucci after whom America is named. In Valentina's time line who else but Benito Mussolini or Il Duce, who had a Jewish mistress and Valentina's rapist Dante whose family are proud fascists. Most WW2 timelines  in fiction pay more attention to Hitler and the Third Reich  but very little to Mussolini, the original fascist who was arrested in 1943 by Italians who then joined with the Allies after which the Germans invaded Italy and took away the Jews to concentration camps in other parts of Europe though many escaped thanks to their fellow Italians.

The writing flows easy, doesn't stow down its pace but reminds one how history might repeat itself if we don't learn from it. The pace is good and makes you wonder who Mona Lisa's daughter is until she makes her appearance and you learn how she ended up.  

One has to applaud the author as she has managed to tell an engaging story based on historical facts. It is tough since it covers so many well known historical icons.

This is one book you have to read this year. Buy it here on Amazon

 

The Sari woven in prison by Nehru for Indira Gandhi's wedding

The Red Sari
by Javier Moro
Genre: Non-fiction
Available in different formats and languages.

In India, Sonia Gandhi is a mystery, especially for the generations born after 1960 in India. While some may remember Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and their horrible assassinations which wounded their psyche as children and chose to forget it as it is too painful that made the rise of the Hindu Right in the late 80s possible, this novel makes it hard to forget and gives a glimpse into the life of Sonia Gandhi.

The Red Sari is almost a biographical account of Sonia Gandhi and addresses most of the accusation filled rhetoric of the media and  politicians of different parties in India against Sonia Gandhi who they describe as "a person with power but no responsibility." Her Italian origins are mocked at and some go to the extent of claiming that she is a foreign spy. This book answers their accusations.

The style is crisp. It lifts the curtain behind the mystery that is Sonia Gandhi and introduces the reader to her family, her love story, the story of Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv ever since she became the elder daughter-in-law, her children and grandchildren, the 1971 war, the emergency, Operation Blue Star, the Bofors scandal, the security scares and the reason she agreed to become Congress President finally even though she was offered it on a platter again and again since Rajiv's murder. It is like reading the history of India from 1968 with all its triumphs and tragedies and the challenges faced by the leaders.

This is a must read for all Indians born after 1960 and for those interested in Indian politics. Amazing this book has been ignored by the media.

You can buy the book here  or here in India