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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
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Historical adventure fiction

MARIA LA DIVINA

Jerome Charyn

A Novel of Maria Callas

In this incredible new novel, Jerome Charyn tackles the life and career of Maria Callas, the greatest opera singer of the twentieth century. From her turbulent childhood in New York and Greece to her fledgling opera career in Italy to fame on the world stage, Charyn charts the rise and fall of the diva's opera career and her tumultuous life behind the scenes.

Pressured by her mother into a career in the opera, Callas did not find success until she arrived in Italy where she became known as "La Davina." Her opera career flourished, as did her film career. She did not remain at the height of success for long, marred by her reputation a temperamental, scandal-prone diva and abject by the turbulence of her famous affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Charyn paints a vivid portrait of the diva in every stage of her life, addressing the personal challenges she faced that at times overshadowed her success as a legend of opera.

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Maria La Divina (forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press in September 2025); Ravage & Son; Sergeant Salinger; Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin; In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song; Jerzy: A Novel; and A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century. Among other honors, his work has been longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and PEN Award for Biography, shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and selected as a finalist for the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris, Charyn has also been named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Manhattan.

Available products
Book Published 2025-09-16 by Bellevue Press

Comments

Deftly crafted . . . Maria La Divina once again showcases author Jerome Charyn as a novelist of extraordinary literary ability.

Spanish: Circe

Preternatural artistic force, persecuted diva, emotionally abused daughter, demanding loverthey all are on display in this reimagined life of the ultimate diva.

A bravura performance that hits all the right notes and is sure to delight opera devotees and fans of strong women characters.

An impressive portrait. . . . Charyn elicits sympathy for his complex lead through nuanced character work, and he manages to channel the excitement of Callas's performances. This is a marvel.

Charyn impressively covers events, places, and people (even an older Winston Churchill) with a solid pace that never stalls. . . . The complex genius of the Divine Diva will stay with any reader of this work.

Charyn's bracing biographical novel is about Maria Callas's transformation from a New York daughter of Greek immigrants to a world-famous opera soprano. . . . The allure of an opera legend is rendered with humanizing grit.

This vivid portrait of the diva is compelling and dramatic. . . . An excellent choice for biographical fiction and opera fans.

This is the story of the greatest diva ever to grace the stage Maria Callas told as only an aficionado could tell it. Her life story may surprise you it did me. Read this one if you love opera, if you admire Maria Callas, or if you just like a good biography.

The heart of the book lies in Callas's artistic triumphs as she tackles one impossible operatic role after another, redefining them in the process. . . . [Charyn] gives us more to see and hear, not only of Callas, but of the opera itself.