Review: The Seamstress of Sardinia by Bianca Pitzorno

The Seamstress of Sardinia by Bianca Pitzorno

Blurb from Goodreads:

Born into poverty, the seamstress spends her days sewing in the houses of wealthy families. Her work is simple and honest; taught by her nonna, she skilfully prepares nightgowns, undergarments and children’s clothes, leaving the finer work of dressmaking to the ateliers in Paris.

Her story weaves in and out of the lives of the people she works for, whose secrets and scandals she is privy to. Some are kind and generous, others blinded by their desire to climb the social ladder. She dreams of freeing herself from the hardscrabble life she has inherited but can’t help being pulled back in by the love of the people around her.

Set at the dawn of the twentieth century, The Seamstress of Sardinia follows the girl as she grows into a woman, strives to educate herself and falls in love—always fighting for her independence in a world dominated by men and old social conventions.

My Review:
I was sucked into this book immediately not just because of the time period but the way in which the story was told.  It felt like a diary, like being entrusted with all of the character's secrets and I loved it.  For me, historical fiction can be a bit slow but this was an incredibly fast read and I highly recommend it.  I never thought about the caste system in post-cholera Italy and this was definitely a primer in the same.  I definitely recommend!

The Seamstress of Sardinia came out last week on December 6, 2022, and you can purchase HERE! 

I was seven years old when Nonna began entrusting me with putting the finishing touches on the garments she sewed at home for her clients, during those periods when she had no jobs that sent her to work in other people's homes. She and I were the only members of the family left after the cholera epidemic that had taken from us, indiscriminately, my parents, my brothers and sisters, and all my grandmother's other children and grandchildren— my aunts, uncles and cousins. How the two of us managed to survive, I've never known.