This is the 5th book of Grazia Deladda that I have read and I don't believe that it lives up to her better works. The best book of hers that I read is "After the Divorce". That book made me want to read more and it has been hard to track down other works by her. Since discovering the wonders of modern technology, I have been able to order other of her works. Some like "The Mother and the Priest" gave me a message to ponder while others gave me more of an appreciation of life in Sardinia 75 years ago (which is more like life 175 years ago in other European locales). That flavor of life in her native island is always worth the price of admission to her books and "Reeds in the Wind" is no exception.
In this novella (all of her books are short) we see the story of a family of aging sisters who are so down on their luck that their nobility is in name only. We start the story by meeting the sister's servant, Efix. As the tale unfolds we see that he is the person who runs the operation. He does all the work, makes most of the arrangements, and smoothes many a feather. Well, things happen, people come and go, and we end up with an ending that lets us appreciate how an poor, unpaid servant saves the day for his masters (mistresses?). Along the way we again view a society and its' customs that would be otherwise unknown to us. It is poignant at the end when the sisters take care of Efix after he is no longer able to care for himself. The story of the servant managing the affairs of the sisters and the sisters caring for the servant gives a nice twist to a society that was obviously not used to such role reversals.
If it were possible, I would rate this book 3 1/2 by the 5 star grading system. That's not to say that this isn't a good book. Rather it's to say that I know that the author has done better.