Book Title: DAUGHTER OF GENOA
Character Name: Father Vittorio
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Let me put it this way. When I was just seventeen, I joined the Society of Jesus as a novice. When you become a Jesuit, you say goodbye to your family, and you go wherever you are sent. That’s very hard for some men, especially those who come from happy and loving homes. For me, it was easy. I left and I never looked back.
What was your greatest talent?
At school, I thought I would be a great priest-scholar like the Jesuits who taught me. It turned out that I was meant to look after books, not write them. Right now, though, I mostly look after people.
Significant other?
That would be against the rules!
Biggest challenge in daily life?
Jesuit priests live in community, but I spend a lot of time alone. I am a librarian by training, but when the Germans occupied Italy, I was seconded to the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Boetto, to carry out important clandestine work helping the Jewish community. This means that I have to keep a great many secrets from those around me. I can never let down my guard, not even with my own spiritual director. But I love the work I do and I love the people I help. The burden I have to carry is very small compared to the threat they face every day.
Where do you live?
I live with my fellow Jesuits in our community house on the very top floor of the church of the Gesù, in the centre of Genoa. A long time ago, we had a big, important building all to ourselves, with a covered bridge that led to the Palazzo Ducale. But we’ve rather come down in the world since then.
Do you have any enemies?
I am surrounded by them. Everyone in my network has to fear, not just the Germans, but their Italian collaborators who would gladly hand us over to the SS. The great advantage of being an unremarkable-looking, middle-aged priest is that I can mostly pass unnoticed as I move around the city. I try to attract as little attention as possible.
How do you feel about the place where you are now?
Genoa is my hometown. I would never have chosen to return here, but this is where I was called to be. I can do my work here and that is all that matters.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Neither, for reasons I hope are obvious. I do know one very nice cat who puts orange hairs all over my cassock.
If you were not a priest, what would you do for a living?
If it were up to me, I would still be a librarian or perhaps a bookseller. However, I know that my father would insist on making me join the family business.
Greatest disappointment?
I have so many of them. There have been people I couldn’t help, lives I couldn’t save, dangers I didn’t see until it was far too late.
Greatest source of joy?
The feeling that I am doing what I was put on this earth to do. There is no greater joy.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
My secret pleasure is reading books in English. Not theology books, but novels and short stories. It’s very frivolous of me.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I’m not as strong as those around me, and my health is never quite right. I wish I could do more.
What keeps you awake at night?
I wish I could tell you.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I have a cough that won’t go away. I’m sure it’s nothing – just the strain of it all, and the frequent air raids, and rationing, and my weak lungs. But it’s starting to affect my capacity for work, and I simply cannot let that happen.
Have you seen a doctor?
Oh, it isn’t that bad yet. I’m sure I will shake it off. Rest and better nutrition, that’s all I need.
What will you do when the war is over?
This is terribly self-indulgent, but I shall ask my Superior to let me go away for a little while, to the seaside. Of course, we have the sea here in Genoa, but I want to be somewhere far away. Somewhere peaceful where I can sleep, and meditate, and read. Just for a couple of days, before I accept my next task. There will still be so much to do and so many people who need help.
A Novel
The author of Escape to Florence returns with a thrilling adventure set in the war-torn 1940s and inspired by true events, about a young woman who risks everything to help Jewish Italians flee the fascists, and falls in love with the brave aviator behind a daring secret rescue operation.
Anna's family fled to America years ago, to escape the Fascist regime, but Anna had stayed behind. Alone and terrified of discovery, Anna meets Father Vittorio, a Jesuit priest who takes her to shopkeepers Bernardo and Silvia, an older couple who offer shelter and safety without question. But when Anna discovers that this kind, quiet couple is part of a network of ordinary people daring to help Father Vittorio smuggle Jewish citizens, stripped of their status and rights, out of Italy, she is determined to help.
Anna offers skills essential to the cause: she has a deft hand at ledgers and forgery, talents she learned at the high-powered job she held before the Racial Laws were passed—a past she conceals. Working in secrecy, not knowing others’ real names or sharing her own, Anna begins producing fake identity cards and soon meets another member of the operation: a man known as Mr. X., whom she recognizes instantly as the wealthy aviator Massimo Teglio. And suddenly, without warning—despite the threat of imprisonment, torture, and death—Anna finds herself taking the most dangerous of risk of all: falling in love. And she's not the only one.
Based on the true story of the DELASEM—the Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants, an organization of brave volunteers working tirelessly to save innocent lives from the concentration camps—Daughter of Genoa is a poignant look at those who loved and lost yet continued to risk everything to create a better world.
Women's Fiction Historical [ HarperCollins, On Sale: December 9, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063389984 / eISBN: 9780063389885 ]
Kat Devereaux was born near Edinburgh, and has lived in the United States, Russia, France, Chile, Germany, and Italy. She now lives in the beautiful Czech city of Prague. She is a historian by training and an enthusiast by nature.
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