Spotlight on.. DIVA

Submitted: 15th March 2024

DIVA by Daisy Goodwin

This week, DIVA, the story of Maria Callas by Daisy Goodwin launched itself onto the bookshop stage, The global setting: The opera houses of the world!

DIVA (c) The BookTrail

Location – The opera houses of the world

Character – Maria Callas

Map of locations in DIVA

Book emotions

The story of her life created by fact and fiction to make this utterly compelling story!

We go from her childhood in Greece across the USA and the opera houses of the world. Whether you know something about opera or not, or even care about opera, never fear. THIS is the story of a woman in a man’s world struggling to literally maker her voice heard.

This is the woman who grew up via a troublesome childhood, health issues and then went on to marry the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

The stories of her early life with her singing teacher brought shivers to my spine – how she trains her voice and protects it – utterly fascinating! A voice is like a treasure chest of gold coins and that you have to polish and protect them and not squander them. Utterly compelling.

You get to see behind the scenes of a star and her entourage as well as her ‘ hangers on’. You might want to punch one or two characters in the face by the end. Not Maria though – I wanted to hug her.