LA Divina
Books / Hardcover
Books › Fiction › Romance › General
ISBN: 0688088368 / Publisher: William Morrow & Co, February 1994
The fictional portrait of the passionate and tragic personal life of a world-acclaimed opera diva profiles Athena Varos, whose voice and charisma propel her to fame matched with a legendary private life
Read More
From the best-selling, internationally acclaimed author Anne Edwards comes this powerful story of fame, ambition, betrayal and grand passion. At the heart of the novel is La Divina, Athena Varos, whose great voice and extraordinary charisma fuel her rise to fame as one of this century's greatest opera divas, and whose sensational private life makes her - and the men who power her meteoric career and stir her emotions - into the stuff of legend.Set against a series of richly evocative backdrops - from the teeming immigrant hub of the Bronx of the 1930s to German-occupied Greece during the Second World War to the glittery, dazzling opera and monied society of Paris, Rome, Venice, New York, and Buenos Aires - La Divina is also the story of Varos's riveting and stormy affair with ruthlessly ambitious, sexually charged Greek shipping tycoon Mano Zakarias.The cast of La Divina is large and richly textured with unforgettable men and women who spring instantly to life. There is Athena's Machiavellian husband, the arriviste Italian Roberto Vallobrosa, who traps her into a marriage in which her own needs cannot be satisfied; Mano's wife, the tragic, beautiful Nikki Sylvanus Zakarias; Athena's large-hearted Uncle Spiros, who helps her foster her dream; her failed father and bitter mother; and Serafina, her doomed semiretarded aunt.La Divina is a stirring epic of a woman who ultimately finds within herself the courage to rise above adversity and betrayal to become the star she was always destined to be. Filled with the meticulous historical detail, psychological insight, and sweeping pageantry for which she is renowned, La Divina displays Anne Edwards's storytelling powers at their richest.
Read Less