Hidden Voices

by Pat Lowery Collins

  PAT LOWERY COLLINS is the author of many acclaimed books, including the novels The Fattening Hut, Just Imagine, and Signs & Wonders, as well as the picture books I Am a Dancer, I Am an Artist, and Come Out, Come Out! She says that the inspiration for Hidden Voices “came from a single fact heard on my classical music station: that Antonio Vivaldi wrote countless concertos to showcase the talents of orphan girls and snare husbands for a lucky few. Intrigued, I dug more deeply and discovered so much rich and often apocryphal material that it was almost overwhelming. As did Vivaldi, I chose to focus on the orphans themselves and to acquaint readers with the composer and his music through their story.” Pat Lowery Collins teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Lesley University and lives in Massachusetts.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2009 by Pat Lowery Collins

  Cover photographs: copyright © 2009 by Dougal Waters/Getty Images (girl); copyright © 2009 by Marisa Allegra Williams/iStockphoto (Venice); copyright © 2009 by Anika Salsera/iStockphoto (musical notes)

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2011

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Collins, Pat Lowery

  Hidden voices / Pat Lowery Collins. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Anetta, Rosalba, and Luisa find their lives taking unexpected paths while growing up in early eighteenth-century Venice at the orphanage Ospedale della Pietà, where concerts are given to support the orphanage as well as “expose” the girls to potential suitors.

  ISBN 978-0-7636-3917-4 (hardcover)

  [1. Orphans — Fiction. 2. Music — Fiction.

  3. Interpersonal relations — Fiction.

  4. Ospedale della Pietà (Venice, Italy) — Fiction.

  5. Venice (Italy) — History — 18th century — Fiction.

  6. Italy — History — 18th century — Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.C69675Vo 2009

  [E] — dc22 2008018762

  ISBN 978-0-7636-5617-1 (electronic)

  Candlewick Press

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  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

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