Long before Elena Ferrante, there was Grazia Deledda, prolific writer whose characters typically face moral dilemmas, commit sin, and seek redemption. The Flight into Egypt, published less than a year before Deledda was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, delves into one man’s attempt to atone for his decades-old sin by saving the most innocent of lives.Perhaps as proof that it’s never too late to make a change and begin a new chapter in life, the story begins with Giuseppe De Nicola, who, after forty years’ service as a primary school teacher, is planning to retire and leave his native Sardinia for the first time ever. He’s been invited to come live in a small town on the Adriatic coast of the Italian peninsula with his long-estranged adopted son, his son’s sickly wife, and their lively little daughter.The teacher’s emotional state is described with allusions to the Biblical story of the flight into Egypt, which serves as an inspiration for the novel’s title, and which also appears as the title of a small, hand-crafted needlework tapestry, one of the man’s prized possessions.As Giuseppe settles into his new life, bonding with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, details emerge about his own troubled past and his failed relationship with his son. When he stumbles upon sin in his new home, Giuseppe, a man of faith, comes to believe that God is presenting him an opportunity to atone for his past sins by saving an innocent soul now. Will his faith provide the requisite strength to do what must be done?A beautifully written novel featuring Deledda’s straightforward, yet hauntingly elegant prose. A keen observer of both the human and natural worlds, she offers a timeless portrait of a time and place in equal parts achingly far away and deceptively close at hand. The Flight into Egypt is a story of redemption that lingers long after the book is finished.(Paperback edition coming soon.)
