''Mariana'' is the 1997 second novel of

Katherine Vaz Katherine Vaz (born August 26, 1955) is an American writer. A Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard University (2003–9), a 2006–7 Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the Fall, 2012 Harman Fellow at Baruch Colleg ...

, originally written in English, published by Flamingo/HarperCollin. The novel was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the Top 30 International Books of 1998. The novel has been translated into more than six languages including Portuguese, Italian, and Greek.

Plot

The plot retells the seventeenth-century romance between Mariana Alcoforado, a nun at the

Convent of Beja Museu Rainha Dona Leonor (" Queen Eleanor Museum") is a museum housed in the former Convent of Beja, Portugal. Fodor's Portugal: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore -Fodor's - 2001 - Page 171 0679006761 "You can see Roman artifacts and other tokens of ...

, and an officer in the French army.Reinaldo Francisco Silva ''Portuguese American Literature'' 2009 1847601073 Page 52 "This is also extensible to Katherine Vaz in Saudade and Fado & Other Stories, whereas in Mariana (1997) she focuses on a classical Portuguese love story between a seventeenth-century nun in the convent of Beja and a French officer."

References

1997 novels Novels set in the 17th century Novels set in Portugal {{1990s-hist-novel-stub