This is not how her shopping for an extra treat of anchovies for her father’s pasta supper is supposed to end! After rushing home from shopping, the young university art student Marina Tozzi has plans to celebrate her father’s sale of a painting by Enricho. When she arrives home, she is shocked to find that both her father and Enricho have been shot by German soldiers. How can she continue to live?
As her neighbor pleads with Marina to leave Rome immediately before the Germans come back, she remembers Bernard Berenson lives in a villa outside of Florence. Bernard is an old friend of her father’s, and would help her as her father had helped him in the past. Grabbing what she needs and can carry, Marina leaves for an uncertain future that night on a train to Florence with the loss of her beloved father heavy on her heart.
A GIRL DURING THE WAR, written by Australian author Anita Abriel and set in 1943 wartime Italy, is an amazing tale of resiliency and love as the young Marina, and the new friends she meets, face a very uncertain future. Marina is a very likeable and intelligent character who soon settles into a different and much richer life in Florence. Appreciating her need to be useful, Berenson asks her to help catalog his collection at the villa. Her extensive art knowledge she got from her father, and her “good eye” for detail, is put to good use. Readers of A GIRL DURING THE WAR are sure to relish the details about Italian art as well as what happened to many historical works during this wartime occupation.
WWII had long been a favorite period of mine to read about, so I am impressed with Abriel’s ability to weave in her fictional account of actual people. Bernard Berenson and his partner Bella da Costa, the famed librarian who had curated J.P. Morgan’s Library, were a real-life couple. The developing relationship between Marina and Carlos is also intriguing and highlights the role of the Italian Partisans as well as how others are affected by the German occupation.
If you are a fan of historical fiction or WWI stories, you are sure to find much to savor in this delightful, yet so poignant story. The end is a bit unexpected but closer to the truth in many cases. This is the first book by Anita Abriel I have read, but now I look forward to reading her previous books, including THE LIGHT AFTER THE WAR! Lots here to enjoy!
Rome, 1943: University student Marina Tozzi is on her way home when she finds out that her father has been killed for harboring a Jewish artist in their home. Fearful of the consequences, Marina flees to Villa I Tatti, the Florence villa of her father’s American friend Bernard Berenson and his partner Belle da Costa Greene, the famed librarian who once curated J.P. Morgan’s library.
Florence is a hotbed of activity as partisans and Germans fight for control of the city. Marina, an art expert, begins helping Bernard catalog his library as he makes the difficult trek to neutral Switzerland, helping to hide precious cultural artifacts from the Germans. Adding to the tension, their young neighbor Carlos, a partisan, seeks out Marina for both her art expertise and her charm. Marina, swept up in the romance, dreams of a life together after the war.
But when Carlos disappears, all of Marina’s assumptions about her life in Florence are thrown into doubt, and she’ll have to travel halfway around the world to unravel what really happened during the war.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy