The Amalfi Curse

“The women knew that tomorrow, wherever the pirates landed, it would not be Positano. The men would not seize their goods, their food, their daughters. No matter how the pirate ships rigged their sails, they would not find easy passageway against the undercurrent the women now drew upward from the bottom of the sea. They would turn east, or west. They would go elsewhere. They always did.”

Asyndeton is the deliberate omission of a coordinating conjunction between words or phrases, as in the phrase “their goods, their food, their daughters.” Anaphora refers to the repetition of a word or series of words at the beginning of consecutive phrases or sentences, such as the repetition of “They” in the last four sentences. These two literary techniques contribute to the passage’s assured tone, which reflects the sea witches’ certainty in their power. The witches’ perfect success rate in diverting pirate ships helps to establish them as Positano’s protectors at the start of the novel and underscores the serious responsibility Mari carries as their leader.

“If Lia was indeed in the water, it would be impossible for the young girl to make her way back to shore. She was smaller than other girls her age, her bones fragile as seashells, and though she could swim, she’d have nothing against the power of these tides. The very purpose of the incantation had been to drive the currents toward the deep, dark sea, with enough strength to stave off a pirate ship.”

The simile that describes Lia’s bones as “fragile as seashells” emphasizes the danger that the six-year-old may be in and reinforces the novel’s maritime setting. Penner adds a poetic touch to the passage through her usage of alliteration in “deep, dark” and “strength to stave.”