Embracing Serafina

This book moves with compelling energy from the forests of north-western Ontario to the capitals of Europe to the tribal villages of Africa...and from there to South America, China, and into the mysterious world that existed behind the Iron Curtain when few Westerners dared, or got the chance, to visit there. It is an absorbingly personal document, with the power not only of insight and innocence but of deeply conveyed sensuality -- toward sun and seawater and mountain air; the music and hustle of cafes and cantinas; the tastes and smells of exotic kitchens and markets. There is an urgency here, bred of complex desires and a craving for experience and knowledge. Through her search, Petrone reveals not just the graces but the hard edges and uncertainties of a woman's ventures into foreign landscapes and into the foreboding terrain of the self.