The Almalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
Release Date: April 29, 2025
Publisher: Park Row
Review by Colin Mustful
With a perfect mash-up of history, magical realism, and well-executed dual timelines, Sarah Penner has succeeded once again in creating a delightful read that is hard to put down.
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner takes readers to Positano, a small coastal village along—you guessed it—Italy's Amalfi Coast. A dual timeline, the story follows a present-day nautical engineer beginning a year-long project to explore the shipwrecks of Li Galli. The historical timeline follows Mari, a young sea-witch, known as a Strega, who must use her witchcraft to protect the community from pirates and natural disasters. Ironically, Mari hates the sea due to the tragic deaths of her mother and sister years earlier.
The two timelines fit nicely together as a tragedy in the opening pages of the novel leads Haven to discover the Amalfi Curse. Believed to be only folklore, Haven can't seem to ignore the strange events that continue to plague the town and sink (pun intended) her project. Motivated by her father's discovery shortly before his unexpected passing, Haven begins to explore nautical archives uncovering the truth of the Curse. In the historical timeline, Mari must rescue a young girl kidnapped by pirates while protecting the village from future attacks. To do so, she must use the sacred incantations of the Strega, all while putting her lover's life in the balance. As the story moves toward a conclusion, we see how the events of the past affect the events of the present as discovered by Haven.
I applaud Penner for writing such an enjoyable read while taking the time to ensure a certain precision of storytelling. Penner took no shortcuts here. It's clear she studied the region, its history, and its tradition before ever sitting down to write. In fact, I even discovered that she became certified in nautical engineering in order to fully immerse herself in the world of her protagonist. The settings are stunning and feel inviting and true. The characters, though their development is minimized by the space allowed in a dual timeline, are fully formed with convincing backgrounds that rightfully inform their motivations and decisions. And while this could easily have been a story about magic and treasure hunting, Penner adroitly makes it about relationships and emotion.
Put simply, The Amalfi Curse is a fun read that, if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, much like Haven, will leave you completely satisfied. And if you're like me, it will also have you looking up flights to Italy to discover for yourself the magic and beauty of the Amalfi Coast.
About the Author
Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary and The London Séance Society. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and her debut, The Lost Apothecary, has sold over one million copies worldwide.
A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah spent thirteen years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. In her free time, Sarah enjoys hiking, yoga, and cooking. She also sits on the Board of Directors at her local animal shelter, Friends of Strays. Sarah and her husband, Marc, live in Florida.
