A Single Witness by Christine Balint

It is 1756. In a mountain village outside Venice, 13-year-old Anna Maria Bonon lives with her grandmother and her father, Giacomo. In the daytime, she cards wool at the local mill. At home, she raises silk worms. Giacomo is one of the forestieri (outsiders) in the community, scrambling for work, drinking his sorrows away at the osteria, stealing by the cover of night. When he is arrested for attempted murder, Anna Maria discovers her voice and the courage to tell her story. She walks 29 kilometres to Vicenza and accuses him of rape. The Council of Ten arrive from Venice to investigate.

Challenged by her grandmother and the priest, Anna Maria is torn between loyalty to her elders and telling her truth. She must decide whether to affirm her original story or deny it. Will she choose her own safety and justice over the survival of her family?

Drawing closely on original trial documents from the Venetian archives, prize-winning novelist Christine Balint brings to life a court case unique for its time, with important echoes to the present day.

About the Author: Christine Balint is the author of three novels. Most recently, Water Music won the 2021
Viva la Novella Prize. Her first novel, The Salt Letters, was shortlisted for The Australian
/ Vogel Literary Award, and was followed by Ophelia’s Fan. Her work has been published
to critical acclaim in Australia, the United States, Germany and Italy, and she was named
one of Barnes & Noble’s Great New Writers in 2001. Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts
(Honours) in English and Modern European Studies and has undertaken international
archival research in French, Italian and Hungarian. She has a PhD in Creative Arts from
the University of Melbourne and has taught at the University of Melbourne and RMIT,
and currently at La Trobe University. She is the daughter of Hungarian/Transylvanian
refugees and lives on Bunurong Land (the Mornington Peninsula) with her partner and
two children.

01 May 2026
 

A Single Witness by Christine Balint ISBN 9781922964342