A Single Witness

 A Single Witness

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       June 9, 2026

 

Author  Christine Balint

Distributor:      Spinifex Press
ISBN:                 9781922964359
Publisher:         Spinifex Press
Release Date:   May 2026  

   Website:   https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/ebook-store/p/a-single-witness-ebook-pdf

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Dark and deeply disturbing A Single Witness from Christine Balint returns to a time when judgement was freely handed out and a woman’s lot was hard, challenging and accepted. Italy in 1757 was such a place, especially in the town of Schio were this story of tragedy and acceptance begins and in so many ways ends.

A girl, young, troubled and at the first blush of youth stands in her dead mother shoes, a small bag of coins fastened inside her clothing; a man relentlessly questions her. She has been bought up to always tell the truth, but when the truth compromises the family and the Church she is told to lie. Her name is Anna Maria and this is her story.

She has little but is expected to somehow manage to survive. She is reporting a rape, a rape she has endured, but whether they will believe her is still unknown. All she knows is she needs to leave to save herself from a violent man; her father.

Justice is slow to be awarded but at what cost to Anna Maria, as she is forced to make her way in an unforgiving society, one that shuns a young, unmarried girl with little or no skills.

Balint has created a story that resonates down through the ages based on a trial record housed in the State Archives of Venice under the Procesi Criminaliti Processi: Vincenza Busta 1756-59 which tells of a dark and tragic tale mired in cowardice and fear.

Fiction, Historical