Vivien Ferrars 
Accursed 

Piemonte, 1894. Maria, the impoverished daughter of a once affluent farming family, faces a painful choice: live as a poor relation in her brother’s wife’s household, or marry a newcomer to the county, the game warden brought in by Maria’s mother’s godmother, who is the chatelaine of one of the principal estates of the area. She chooses marriage, and it proves to be a disastrous choice. Her husband, Mate, turns out to be a dishonest, violent drunkard who is soon dismissed by his employer for…poaching. A profoundly devout Catholic, Maria appeals to her confessor for guidance; he tells her that it is a wife’s duty to receive her husband -even if he is a drunken lout. To refuse him is a mortal sin. She is trapped. But she is not alone: she has friends, and they rally to her. Her own upright character earns her the respect and loyalty of those who know her. Years pass. Maria gives birth to child after child, desperately trying to maintain some decency, to protect her growing family against the shambles Mat makes of their chances. WWI breaks out, depleting the countryside of its young men. Maria’s first-born son goes missing in action.He is not heard of again. Through it all, Maria struggles to support her family, to pay off her small farm and to maintain her faith, which falters when, the war over, her second youngest son, Sandrn, falls victim to diphtheria after the epidemic is over.