title: Italy Revisited: Conversations with my mother (Prose Series)
author:  Mary Melfi 
description: Mary Melfi has written over a dozen books of poetry, fiction, and stories for children. She lives in Montreal.
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # The Mother
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Grazia Deledda
  
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
  
  
  PREFACE
  
  
  CHAPTER I
  
  
  CHAPTER II
  
  
  CHAPTER III
  
  
  CHAPTER IV
  
  
  CHAPTER V
  
  
  CHAPTER VI
  
  
  CHAPTER VII
  
  
  CHAPTER VIII
  
  
  CHAPTER IX
  
  
  CHAPTER X
  
  
  CHAPTER XI
  
  
  CHAPTER XII
  
  
  CHAPTER XIII
  
  
  CHAPTER XIV
  
  
  
  
  
  #### Translated from the Italian by Mary G. Steegmann.
  
  
  
  
      
  
  This book has been put on-line as Part of the Build-A-Book
  
  
  Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers through the
  
  
  combined work of:
  
  
  **Rod Hay** and **Mary Mark Ockerbloom.**
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  ### TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
  
  
  
  
  
    
  _The Mother_ * is an unusual
  
  
  book, both in its story and its setting in a remote Sardinian hill
  
  
  village, half civilized and superstitious. But the chief interest lies
  
  
  in the psychological study of the two chief characters, and the action
  
  
  of the story takes place so rapidly (all within the space of two days)
  
  
  and the 