Sparrow Author:Giovanni Verga, Lucy Gordan (Translator), Frances Frenaye (Translator) Sparrow is an English translation of Giovanni Verga's Storia di una capinera. Written in the summer of 1869 and set in Risorgimento Sicily, it is one of Verga's first novels. Maria, the protagonist, is a young novice, put into the convent by her family after the death of her mother. She is about to take her religious vows w... more »hen her community is forced to abandon its convent in Catania during an epidemic. She spends her temporary freedom with her family in the surrounding countryside.
Maria's letters to her confidant Marianna soon reveal her unexpected joy at falling in love with a neighbor's son. As the two are separated by prejudice and convention, and Maria is forced to return to her convent, her love soon turns to passion, jealousy, obsession and madness.« less