Reeds in the Wind

"We are like reeds in the wind… and fate is the wind."

On the wild, sun-scorched island of Sardinia, the once-proud Pintor family has fallen on hard times. In a crumbling house above the river, three unmarried sisters cling to the last shreds of their name - and to Efix, the faithful old servant who has spent his life tending their final scrap of land. Efix works not for wages but for penance, haunted by a secret from the night the family's fortunes turned.

Then a letter arrives. Giacinto - the sisters' nephew, son of the daughter who fled the island years ago in disgrace - is coming home. Young, charming, and trailing trouble behind him, he stirs up old hopes and older wounds, and the fragile peace Efix has built begins to come apart.

Set against the haunting landscape of rural Sardinia, with its festivals, superstitions, and ancient codes of honor, Reeds in the Wind is a hypnotic story of guilt and grace, sin and redemption, and the quiet endurance of ordinary people bent - but not broken - by fate. A masterpiece from the only Italian woman ever awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, it remains as moving today as when it first appeared.

A timeless classic, now ready to be heard.

By award winning author Grazia Deledda, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Translated from the Italian "Canne al Vento" by Cicero Publishing.