Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Canadian title/character for letter Z. But I did read Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts, and I really got to like the character of Sister Zuana. The novel is set in 16th-century Italy, a time when dowries for the daughters of the nobility were prohibitively expensive. Most nobles could only afford to make a lavish match for one daughter; any remaining daughters were often put into convents. Such is the fate of Serafina, a teenage noblewoman who has fallen in love with her music teacher. Her parents quickly place her in a convent before she can disgrace her family.
The convent is a stifling place. A routine of strict discipline is enforced, visits from family are rare, and the nuns are never allowed to see or be seen by the outside world. Serafina rages against her fate, then she pines, almost starving herself to death.
In contrast with the teenage rebel Serafina is Sor (Sister) Zuana, a middle-aged nun who has lived in the convent for many years, and manages the infirmary. For Zuana, placement in the convent was almost a blessing; she has a sharp mind, has inherited her medical skills and knowledge from her physician father, and had no desire to marry. Zuana takes Serafina under her wing.
I really enjoyed the book for its evenhanded portrayal of the fates of these women who were mostly placed in convents against their will. Dunant does an excellent job of portraying how stifling (to the point of panic) Serafina's imprisonment is. Indeed, it seems more like entombment than incarceration; at a very young age, she believes her life to be over, and realistically, she's right. Yet Zuana's experience shows another side of convent life: a woman given the opportunity to fulfill her intellectual potential in a way that would not be possible in the world outside the convent.
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