The Woman Who Lived by the Sea

Sicily, 1904. On the eve of her engagement, young, freedom-loving Constanza learns that her father took his own life. The engagement is broken, and her family sends the brokenhearted girl to New York—the city where many Italians move in search of a better fate. She settles with distant relatives and starts from scratch, suffering painful homesickness. Only after moving to Naples does Constanza regain her ability to breathe and to love. More than a hundred years later, her great-granddaughter, opera singer Lucilla, accidentally finds out about her great-great-grandmother’s fate and tries to track down her traces. The story is filled with the ominous music of waves and the scents of coastal cities. Here, the heroine’s joys and tragedies intertwine with historical events. But whatever storms fate has prepared for her, the eternal blue sea—“where the sun is born and where it dies”—comforts and grants peace.