How I came up with the premise for my novel, “Vatican Daughter.” Had the church scandals never come to light, I never would have had the bravado to write this novel. I witnessed first hand the holy than thou behavior of hypocritical clergy both as a child and as an adult. I was visiting St. Peter’s in Rome ten years ago and thought,  I wonder what’s going on there now. I thought what if a girl was somehow involved. The muse hit hard and I had the title, “Vatican Daughter,” jotted down some notes and put it aside while I went to Columbia University for an MFA in creative writing. In 2019, I returned to Italy, walked 88 miles through Rome and Venice. I returned home to New York and wrote and researched every day for a year. The research took me down many rabbit holes where I discovered the little known fact about the papal kidnappings of Jewish children in 1859 by Pius IX. The fictional pope in “Vatican Daughter,” is American because I never dreamed there would ever be an American elected. I did extensive research on the inner workings of the Vatican hierarchy. 

Set in Rome and Venice – with a brief stop in Magallanes, Chile, and New York City – Vatican Daughter propels the reader deep into the heart of Italy. Ensnared by its vivid descriptive language, you will be transported and immersed in this plausible, suspenseful story as it takes you through various cities, tasting their foods along the way, with different characters. At the same time, you will meander along the medieval palazzos of Rome and Venice, sip the wine, explore the countryside, ride the train, step behind the walls of Vatican City and its papal gardens, and imagine experiencing the loss of a child at the hands of men who would go to any means to avoid the exposure of Vatican corruption, papal indiscretion, and the Vatican’s long-buried secrets. A story of a young woman who relentlessly searches for her child while coming head-to-head with the most powerful entity on earth, Vatican Daughter focuses on serious female-centric issues and the Vatican’s controversial, scandalous, and hypocritical behaviors.

The link to purchase can be found on my website: 

https://www.jonimarieiraci.com

Author Joni Marie Iraci holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Her first novel, Reinventing Jenna Rose, won The Firebird Book Award in 4 categories. She has spoken about her writing, as well as her interesting trajectory of returning to college in her later years, at Strand Bookstore.

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