Description:
Winner of the Independent Publishers Book Awards (Gold Medal, Romance)
Set in China in the late 1800's, The Secret Language of Women tells the story of star-crossed lovers, Zhou Bin Lian, a Eurasian healer, and Giacomo Scimenti, an Italian sailor, driven apart by the Boxer Rebellion.
When Lian is seventeen years old, she accompanies her Swiss father, Dr. Gianluca Brasolin, fluent in Italian, to tend the Italian ambassador, at the Summer Palace of Empress Dowager, where she meets and falls in love with Giacomo.
Through voyage and adventure, their love intensifies, but soon is severed by Lian's dutiful promise as the wife to another. Forbidden from pursuing her chosen profession as a healer, and despised because she does not have bound feet, she is forced to work in a cloisonné factory while her in-laws raise her daughter, Ya Chen. It is in Nushu, the women's secret writing, that she chronicles her life and her hopes for the future.
Rebelling against the life forced upon her, she empowers herself to act out against the injustice and becomes the master of her own destiny. But her quest for freedom comes at a costly price: The life of someone close to her, lost in a raging typhoon, a grueling journey to the Yun-kang Caves, and a desperate search for beauty and love in the midst of brutality.
Brief description: Nina Romano earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University. She's a world traveler and lover of history. She lived in Rome, Italy, for twenty years, and is fluent in Italian and Spanish. She authored a short story collection, The Other Side of the Gates, and has published five poetry collections and two poetry chapbooks. Her most recent poetry collection is Westward: Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows. Romano has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. In America is the final book in the Wayfarer Trilogy from Turner Publishing following the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Award gold medal-winning The Secret Language of Women and Lemon Blossoms. More about the author at: www.ninaromano.com.
Review Quotes: "A stunning look at China at the turn of the twentieth century, this is a love story that crosses boundaries both cultural and geographic. In Nina Romano's The Secret Language of Women, two lovers torn apart by war and culture struggle to reunite against all odds. Despite their determination, fate continues to thwart their efforts, driving home how ephemeral and bittersweet finding true love can be [...] From lush summer palaces to modest countryside farms, The Secret Language of Women demonstrates how love can cross cultural and geographical borders. It proves how love at first sight need not be an impossibility and can form a foundation to carry its recipients through times both good and ill." - Foreword Reviews