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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Feb 2005, 448 pages
Paperback:
Nov 2005, 464 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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Set in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, Russell's ambitious and engrossing novel tells the little known story of how Italian citizens saved more than 43,000 Jews during the last 20 months of WWII.
Set in Italy
during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the first in
seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of
God.
It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning
Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the
thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they
hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and
made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy
is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among
the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary
Italian civilians trying to survive.
Mary Doria Russell sets her first historical novel against this dramatic
background, tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters. Through
them, she tells the little-known but true story of the network of Italian
citizens who saved the lives of forty-three thousand Jews during the war's
final phase. The result of five years of meticulous research, A Thread of Grace
is an ambitious, engrossing novel of ideas, history, and marvelous
characters that will please Russell's many fans and earn her even more.
Greater Italy
1943
Anno Fascista XXII
8 September 1943
Porto Sant'Andrea, Liguria
Northwestern Coast of Italy
A simple answer to a simple question. That's all Werner Schramm requires.
"Where's the church?" he yells, belligerent and sick—sicker yet when
his shout becomes a swampy cough.
A small crowd gathers to appreciate the spectacle: a Waffen-SS officer, thin,
fortyish, and liquored up. He props his hands against his knees, coughing
harder. "La basilica!" he gasps, remembering the Italian. "San
Giovanni—dove è?"
A young woman points. He catches the word campanile, and straightens, careful
of his chest. Spotting the bell tower above a tumble of rooftops that stagger
toward the sea, he turns to thank her. Everyone is gone.
No matter. Downhill is the path of least resistance for a man who's drunk
himself legless. Nearer the harbor, the honeyed light of the Italian Riviera
...
Russell introduces us to an expansive and richly drawn cast of characters in a book that is both epic and brilliant...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
David Morrell, author of The Brotherhood of the Rose and First Blood
Fans of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God will be
thrilled by her masterful new novel. A Thread of Grace is a rich,
multi-layered narrative that offers fresh insight into a devastating time in
world affairs. A story of love and war, it speaks to the resilience and beauty
of the human spirit in the midst of unimaginable horror. It is,
unquestionably, a literary triumph. Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
Mary Doria Russell's fans (and aren't we all?) will rejoice to see
her new novel on the shelves. A Thread of Grace is as ambitious, beautiful,
tense, and transforming as any of us could have hoped. Susan Cahill, author/editor of Desiring Italy and The Smiles of Rome
Essential reading for people who love Italy. You will lose yourself
completely in this ecumenical epic of Italians working together to save Jewish
refugees during the German Occupation of 1943-1944. Russell has a deep empathy
for her characters and writes with genius about the horrors of guerrilla war.
This wholly absorbing historical novel ends with perhaps the most moving coda
in fictional history.Mary Russell Doria says,
'the highest Jewish survival rate in Nazi-occupied
Europe was in Italy! We've spent 60 years trying
to understand what went wrong during the
Holocaust. I wanted to know what went right in
Italy.'
For skeptics who believe that she might have
idealized the courage and generosity of ordinary
Italians during the 1940s, Russell closes her
author's note with the following inscription
...
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