Lake Union Publishing
May 2017
On Sale: May 1, 2017
Featuring: Pino Lella
ISBN: 1503943372 EAN: 9781503943377 Kindle: B01L1CEZ6K Trade Size / e-Book Add to Wish List
Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young manβs incredible courage and resilience during one of historyβs darkest hours.
Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. Heβs a normal Italian teenagerβobsessed with music, food, and girlsβbut his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
In an attempt to protect him, Pinoβs parents force him to enlist as a German soldierβa move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitlerβs left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reichβs most mysterious and powerful commanders.
Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.
More Information
Lake Union Publishingβs Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan have been acquired by Pascal Pictures, with Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland attached to play the lead!
Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath A Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young manβs incredible courage and resilience during one of historyβs darkest hours.
It follows 17-year-old, real-life hero Pino Lella as he guides hunted Jews out of northern Italy over the rugged winter Alps into Switzerland. The saga continues when Pino is then recruited to become a spy for the Italian Resistance. Working undercover as a driver for a mysterious and powerful Nazi general, Pino gains access deep inside the German High Command but also witnesses the atrocities of the war firsthand.
When he first heard snippets of Pino Lellaβs story at a dinner party more than 11 years ago, Mark Sullivan was unable to shake the image of an Italian teenager leading refugees to safety across perilous mountain ridges, and he became determined to tell the tale of this anonymous, unsung hero. Sullivan spent weeks in Italy with Pino, listening to the 79-year-old recount in painstaking detail the most fraught and eventful years of his life. And for the next nine years, Sullivan interviewed historians and Holocaust experts and dug through war archives in Germany, Italy, the U.S., and Great Britain.
As a result of these incredible interviews and research, Beneath A Scarlet Sky is more than just a novel based on true eventsβit is a piece of history, and Pinoβs own memories have given this book its realism, its heart, and its shattering sense of loss and tragedy. It is truly a tale unlike any otherβa story of courage and intrigue, love and redemptionβand one that can finally be shared.
Mark Sullivan is the acclaimed author of eighteen novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling Private series, which he writes with James Patterson. Mark has received numerous awards for his writing, including the WHSmith Fresh Talent Award, and his works have been named a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. He lives with his wife in Bozeman, Montana.
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