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June/July 2012 www.esb.ie/em
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By Kathleen Thorne
BOOK REVIEW
Accabadora
By Michela Murgia
Translated from Italian by Silvester Mazzarella
Price €13.20
Maria Listru, born in Sardinia in modern times, is the daughter of Anna Teresa Listru, who already has three daughters and is not happy with the arrival of another.
Bonaria Urrai is a woman of some note and importance in the area because she is the local Accabadora, which means she assists the dying in their passage towards death. Bonaria is aware of Anna Teresa’s problems and so decides to adopt little Maria when she is six years old. Maria then becomes the soul-child of Bonaria, who is a gaunt, elderly woman living alone. She is a seamstress and is relatively wealthy. She is alone because the man she was to have married never returned from the war.
Maria is happy with Bonaria. Even though Maria is aware of Bonaria’s frequent absence from the house, she does not fully understand the significance of this until a local young man dies and his brother tells her of Bonaria’s role in the death.
Maria has a blazing row with Bonaria. She leaves home and goes to work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Turin, caring for their two children. Circumstances contrive to force her out of the house just as a letter arrives from her sister telling her that Bonaria is seriously ill. She returns home to nurse her adopted mother.
Bonaria lingers between life and death for a long time. During this time Maria comes to understand much about Bonaria and the story comes full circle.
Accabadora is a tale of rural life in Sardinia where customs and superstitions have remain unchanged for generations. In this, it is reminiscent of practices in many rural regions internationally. It reads fluidly and speaks eloquently of hurt, compassion and the complexities of human relation.
