The Amalfi Curse

At 2 in the morning, a group of 12 streghe del mare, or sea witches, gather on the shore of Positano and cast a spell to keep away an approaching fleet of pirate ships. The sea witches’ power stems from their unique heritage as descendants of the sirens who lived in the nearby Li Galli islets thousands of years ago. Twenty-year-old Mari DeLuca carries the weighty responsibility of the current curse. Her magic is the strongest because she comes from an unbroken line of witches, making her the group’s leader, like her mother before her.

Despite her incredible power and affinity for water, Mari has loathed the sea since she witnessed her mother, Imelda, disappear when she was only eight years old. Two years ago, Mari’s hatred for the sea grew even more bitter when her younger sister, Sofia, drowned at age 14. Unbeknownst to the other witches, Mari plans to leave Positano in a few weeks. Most of the protective spells that the group casts last only a few days, but there is one called the vortice centuriaria that would protect Positano for 100 years. To cast it, a witch would have to remove her cimaruta, a talisman that gives the witches “great strength and vigor in moments of distress” (18), and sacrifice her life.

After the women finish their spell, Mari’s best friend, Ami, stealthily gives Mari a letter. Mari is startled when she sees a man on a nearby dock and fears that he has been spying on them, but she doesn’t tell the other witches what she saw.

The narrative moves forward in time. Thirty-five-year-old Haven leaves her home in the Florida Keys and travels to Positano to lead a project with four other women nautical archaeologists. For a year, the team will explore Li Galli, three islets surrounded by dozens of shipwrecks. Many of these wrecks occurred in the 1820s and 1830s and were attributed to powerful underwater currents, a phenomenon called the Amalfi Curse that lasted until 1920.

Haven’s father was a renowned nautical archaeologist who instilled a love of his profession and adventure in his only child. He always dreamed of making an enormous discovery, but he died before he was able to achieve this ambition. Her first morning in Positano falls on her father’s birthday, and Haven receives an encouraging text from Conrad, an affluent retired diver and a family friend.

Haven’s friend Mal is the dive marshal, responsible for the team’s underwater safety. Haven and Mal are astonished when they see a modern-day yacht sinking in Li Galli because there is no inclement weather or other scientific explanation for the wreck. Still, Haven dismisses the idea of a curse.

The narrative moves backwards in time. In a letter dated April 11, 1821, Matteo informs his brother that a man is offering to sell them information about Positano. The brothers thought they had “stripped that village of her value” years ago (34), but Matteo is ready to accept the man’s offer. He encourages Massimo to come to him at once so that they can scout the village together.

The story shifts to Mari’s perspective. She returns to the hilltop villa where she lives with her stepmother, Cleila, and her 19-year-old stepsister, Paola. Mari’s father and Corso, an affluent distant cousin from Rome, are up early. Years ago, Mari agreed to marry Corso because her father’s net-making shop was struggling, and she thought securing a dowry for Sofia would give her a chance at love.

Mari finds the arrogant and indolent Corso loathsome and secretly loves Holmes, an American sailor she met almost a year ago. She hurries to her room and reads the letter Ami gave her that morning, which is from Holmes. He writes, “Mari, my beauty. It is now more than three weeks since I last saw you. I am sure I cannot long for you any more than I do now, but I have been thinking that since I left Positano” (41). Currently, Holmes is sailing on the Aquila, one of the Mazza brothers’ ships, and Mari worries for him because Matteo and Massimo are known to have made their fortune through unscrupulous means, such as alliances with pirates. The merchants smuggle black-market goods, and Holmes overheard the first mate boast that the Aquila is carrying the “most valuable asset the Mazza brothers have ever moved from port to port” (44). Holmes closes the letter by blissfully reminding Mari of their plan to run away together.

Mari hides the message in a drawer with her other letters from Holmes. Knowing that she has delayed as long as she can, she goes to see Corso. He hints that her wedding ring will soon be ready, and she listens joylessly as he describes his plans for their luxurious life together.

The narrative shifts to Holmes’s perspective. He has a nightmare in which he drowns, and Mari flees Positano with a different lover, someone “bigger and stronger” than him who speaks flawless Italian (51).

The narrative returns to the present day. Haven worries that the yacht sinking might delay the start of her work. Project Relic is urgent because data indicates that Mount Vesuvius may erupt soon, destroying the ruins along the Amalfi Coast. With technology from a woman-owned AI start-up and funding from a heritage protection foundation called HPI, Haven and her team are poised to take on the unprecedented challenge of exploring the ruins of Li Galli’s densely packed shipwrecks. HPI’s CEO is a man named Gage Whitlock. Haven doesn’t tell him about the yacht because HPI has repeatedly warned her that they can pull their funding at any time.

Haven’s father made a few trips to Li Galli and suggested that Haven explore there. During his last dive, he found a “trail of pink and red gemstones” (57), but was unable to recover the treasure due to a stroke. He told his daughter, “If I can’t make it back to Positano myself […] don’t let this go” (58). Mari blames herself for his passing because she was napping outside when he had a second stroke and died alone. She sees Project Relic as a chance to make amends.

In the present, Haven reviews the photographs that her father took on his last dive and the mysterious chart of numbers and letters that he sent her along with the pictures. She hasn’t told anyone about the treasure her father found because someone who lacks her professional ethics might try to seize it for themselves. However, a text from Conrad asking if she’s found anything makes her wonder if he suspects her secret.

The narrative moves back in time. The pirates plunder the town of San Marco, and the people of Positano celebrate being spared from misfortune once again. A few days later, Mari takes young witches Pippa and Lia out to sea. She teaches them how to taste the water for signs of danger, but she also shows them that they can solve some problems without magic. For example, they remove a net set by foreign mariners so that local wildlife won’t be trapped inside. A pod of playful dolphins follows the witches.

Positano’s witches ensure that the village’s fishermen always have abundant catches by maintaining optimal conditions for fish eggs in a hidden grotto. Mari takes Pippa and Lia to the grotto and tells them about the food chain that sustains them. The witches row their small boat to a patch of beach below a road. Mari’s pupils persuade her to put on a small display of her power, and Pippa follows her into the water.

When the dolphins suddenly swim away, Mari grows anxious and surfaces. There’s no sign of Lia, and a man wielding a knife tells Mari, “We’ll take good care of her in Naples” (76). Mari drowns the man by creating a vortex of water. To her horror, she discovers that he is Massimo Mazza. The man’s older brother, Matteo, witnesses the magical murder and carries Lia to his carriage before Mari can save her. The man shouts, “I’ll be back” (80).