The Madonna of the mountains / Elise Valmorbida.

1923, north-eastern Italy: Maria Vittoria's father has left the village to find her a husband. He has taken his mule, a pack of food and a photograph of Maria. There are no eligible men in this valley, or the next one, and her father will not allow her to marry just anyone. Just as Fascism blooms in the country, the crops ripen, and the state demands babies, a new generation. There is much work to be done, and Maria faces a stony path, but one she will surely climb to the summit. A sweeping saga about womanhood, loyalty, war, religion, family, food, motherhood, and marriage, this is a poignant look at the span of one woman's life as the rules change and her world becomes unrecognizable. In depicting the great cost of war and the ineluctable power of time on a life, Elise Valmorbida has created an unforgettable portrait of a woman navigating both the unforeseen and the inevitable.