Poinsettia Girl: The Story of Agata della Pietà

by Jennifer Wizbowski

Rating: *****

Set in early eighteenth-century Venice, Poinsettia Girl unfolds the story of Agata della Pietà, who, at age ten, was placed by her dying Nonna, Guilelma, at the Ospedale de la Pietà, an orphanage that placed emphasis on nurturing musical talent and housed its own prestigious and mysterious conservatoire, the Figlie del Coro, for whom Vivaldi was a teacher and composer.

Agata is supremely gifted, not only as a soprano but also as a copyist, composer, and violinist, but childhood trauma has silenced her singing. Can she overcome her grief to become one of the Coro’s elite Poinsettia Girls, or will the past return to claim her?...

Agata della Pietà was an orphan musician of the Pietà in the early 1700s, although little is known about her.  Wizbowski has taken these scant details and those of the Pietà, which are relatively substantial, and created a sumptuous, spellbinding narrative.

Wizbowski's sparkling prose is writerly and self-assured, with details and emotions precisely rendered. Yet, there is an intricacy and a lingering, dreamy eloquence to her words that absorbs and captivates.

The book is divided into three Acts, the first beginning with a ten-year-old Agata attending her mother’s funeral. This opening chapter is written from Agata’s close third-person perspective, and the reader is immediately carried through the mourning procession with her, seeing everyone and everything through a child’s eyes, which lends the scene attention and candor. Wizbowski deftly uses Agata’s emotional confusion and youth to scatter tantalizing hints for the reader throughout her observations, which suggest that a darkness surrounds the enigmatic little girl.

The primary source of this disquiet is her father, Pietro, whose malign presence spreads through the first Act and beyond. He is a damaged, ambiguous character, shape-shifting among the guises of tortured genius, cunning grifter, and ruthless predator.

The other individual whose influence filters through the novel, but for different reasons, is Nonna Guilelma, who is portrayed with warm, authentic maternalism and a tough streak of tenacity.  Qualities that are later reflected for Agata in the figure of Discrete Margarita, her mentor within the walls of the Pietà.

Act II opens with a deeply traumatized Agata arriving at the Pietà, her vulnerability and disorientation starkly contrasting with the unfamiliar surroundings and strict regime of the orphanage. Layer by layer, as Agata navigates the Pietà's rules and customs, Wizbowski illuminates this mysterious, closed world and its curious inhabitants with beautiful subtleties and hushed nuances.

There are a couple of swirling intrigues involving other characters, which are delicately handled, but it’s Agata’s journey through the tiers of the Pietà as she wrestles with her grief and bewilderment that is central. Wizbowski movingly depicts the girl’s fearfulness, but also the quiet resolve that takes its place as Agata immerses herself in music and the esoteric traditions of the Pieta’s Figlie Del Coro.

It's a compelling, gently unpredictable story that resonates with the Pietà girls' bewitching singing. Agata’s demons make the reader apprehensive that she will be able to fulfil her potential or, indeed, whether outside forces will eventually steer her fate.

Act III is where all elements converge, and it has a livelier, less cloistered tone than the previous two, as the secretive girls of the Coro are now young women sought after by the Venice elite for their beguiling vocal ability and marriageability. Wizbowski wisely avoids the seemingly satisfying conclusion, preferring to remain true to Agata’s elusive nature and journey of self-actualization.

Enchanting, atmospheric, and engrossing, Poinsettia Girl is a superbly written and beautifully crafted novel. Highly recommended.

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