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Reviews
Christine Balint’s gripping historical fiction, A Single Witness, is based on the true story of Anna Maria Bonon, a girl from a poor 1750s Italian rural village who worksin a mill by day and farms silkworms at night… Balint superbly recreates the social mores, prejudices and living conditions of village life, giving readers insight into the everyday battles Anna Maria faces. While the narrative is simple on the surface, its themes are complex… For readers of Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
Read the full review here.
— Books+Publishing
…shocking, absorbing, brave, and lush.
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— Caroline Overington, The Australian, Ten Great New Books To Read in May
Though set in eighteenth century Italy, Christine Balint’s gripping novel has a very contemporary feel. A girl has been sexually assaulted by a man but the onus appears to be on her. Sound familiar?
A Single Witness is a worthy addition to the Spinifex list of books.
Read the full review here.
— Charles Rammelkamp, Compulsive Reader
Endorsements
The evocative story of a vulnerable girl who refused to be silenced. Intimate, compelling, and atmospheric.
— Carrie Tiffany, Stella-Prize winning author of Mateship with Birds
A Single Witness is a beautifully crafted yet unflinching probe into an actual crime and its devastating aftermath in 1750s rural Italy. Told deftly and evocatively by a novelist of great skill, it is a deeply satisfying work of literary art, full of intense, almost hallucinatory detail as it goes straight to the heart of a village’s passions and deceits, and the indomitable spirit of the young woman whose life is torn apart.
— Garry Disher, bestselling author and three-time Ned Kelly Award winner
Mesmerising. Riveting. A page-turner.
— Vikki Petraitis, bestselling true crime author and acclaimed podcaster
Christine Balint began working on this novel in 2018 after finding a summary of the story in a book by American historian, Joanne Ferraro. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had just taken place. She could not believe that in 1757, a child had had the courage to speak out and she had been believed and her abuser convicted. Read more on the Sisters in Crime blog here.