Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
It is September 8, 1943, and 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 pitting against one another the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italians trying to survive. Set against this dramatic background, Russell traces the lives of a handful of fascinating characters -- a charismatic Italian resistance leader, a Catholic priest, an Italian rabbi's family, a disillusioned German doctor -- telling the little-known but true story of the Italian citizens who saved the lives of forty-three thousand Jews during the war.… (more)
Subjects
Awards
Language
User reviews
First of all, the sheer amount of research is staggering. This novel completely immerses you in the time period and all the horrors that come with it. I found the first hundred pages confusing because of the myriad of viewpoints and muddle of unfamiliar names, but I soon fell into the story and had little trouble keeping track from then on. Goodness, what a story. There are conflicts with conflicts within conflicts, and the losses are staggering. Some 43,000 Jewish refugees fled into Italy and were taken in by a vast network of safe houses, all orchestrated by the Catholic church in cooperation with the resident Italian Jews. This isn't a feel-good story. It doesn't have the same gripping feel of The Sparrow, in part because there are so many characters that you know many will die. However, it is beautiful and painfully human. Russell's use of present tense created a unique feel in the story, too; I knew it took place in the past, but their travails felt more immediate.
In all, a highly recommended and educational work for those who read World War II fiction.
But, after reading A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria
A Thread of Grace is the story of Jewish people living in Italy during the German occupation. Many of them, for years, have been one step ahead of German troops, running from Belgium, Austria and Holland before settling in southern France – and then on the run again when the Germans were back on their heels. They crossed the Alps and poured into Italy, to freedom they thought, until Italy surrendered and Germany took control of the country.
Ordered to turn themselves in, the Jewish people (both Italian and non-Italian) fled to the countryside and into the benevolent homes of Italian peasants. There, they faked Catholicism, learned Italian and tried to blend into the countryside. Aided by many Catholic priests and nuns, they fought for survival – many joining guerrilla troops that aided the Allies in their defeat of Germany.
There are a lot of characters in this book, and you feel for every one of them. Not all of them survive the story. While this is fiction, you know deep in your heart that it’s still real. Men died fighting in fields, old women and children were shot for just standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, women were raped and tortured. You know the characters represent real people in a time not so long ago.
Lovers of World War II fiction and Mary Doria Russell’s previous works should read A Thread of Grace. It does require a little patience, and it will break your heart. But it will help you appreciate even more how war devastates all, not matter who is the victor.
I don't just like her book, I love it. In the midst of a story that covers the worst atrocity in human history, and littered with characters of
Russell visited the places she describes in her novel, and interviewed survivors of the war. Her original research lends an authentic, present quality to her prose - an immediacy that caught me up into the lives her characters.
There is no question that Russell not only makes history live again, she proves beyond any doubt that it's relevant to our times and our lives.
Sep 8, 1943: fourteen year old Claudette Blum is a Belgian Jew who has taken refuge in Italian-occupied southern France with her father, an accountant who worked for a metal-ore company. When the Italians surrender their occupation, the Germans' arrival in France is eminent, and Claudette and her father, along with thousands of others, are again on the move. Claudette’s mother Paula and brothers David and Jacques have not yet arrived to France, and her father attempts to leave word for them. So begins their dangerous journey over the
Alps towards Italy, where they hope to find safety now that the Italians have broken with Germany and forged a separate peace with the Allies; but they will discover that Italy is anything but peaceful. It has become a battleground for the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and Italian civilians trying to survive.
Set against this dramatic historical background, A Thread of Grace follows the lives of several enticing characters: a disillusioned German doctor, a priest, a charismatic Italian resistance leader, and an Italian rabbi's family. Through these, it tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort of Italian citizens who saved 43,000 Jews during the final phase of the war.
What I Liked/Didn’t: The novel is superbly written, its history rich, and its plot complex. Prior to reading, I did not even know of Italy’s WWII covert movement to save Jews from persecution. That said, I found this one very difficult to follow – in spite of a two-page list of characters at the front of the book. The characters, while interesting, were difficult to keep straight; and the locations within Italy changed every couple of pages. But history is not my forte, so others will undoubtedly have an easier time with it.
"Immense, intractable, incomprehensible, that conflict remains the pivot point of two centuries, the event that defines before and after. Hundreds of millions killed, wounded, maimed, displaced. The last survivors dying now. Their children and their grandchildren are fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy that the dry bones shall live again, but the poison still seeps down, contaminating generations. So much evil, so much destruction." (425)
Mary
Russell knows how to tell a story. A Thread of Grace weaves together several narratives, with a large cast of characters, but she always manages to make each character real and memorable, from Claudette Blum, a teenager coming of age missing her mother and younger brothers and forced to endlessly adjust to her changing circumstances, to Meisinger, an equally young German soldier who driver to the Grüppenfuhrer in the last days of the German occupation. This is a difficult book to put down. There's a great deal of derring-do, from the priest hiding money under his cassock to give to those households hiding Jews, acting against orders from Rome, to the Calabrian soldier who remains in the Alps in order to help the refugees and avoid conscription by the German Army, to a Grandmother who undertakes a dangerous task because sitting safely at home is too boring for her, there is always something going on, usually several things at once. And Russell never lets the reader forget that this isn't an adventure story and that the ending for far too many of the people involved isn't a celebration at the end of the war.
If not for my book club I would have never picked up this wonderful book. Mary Doria Russell has written historical fiction the way it was meant to be written, accurate historical research wrapped in an exquisitely written, compelling story. Bravo! By jump starting our
For once I was able to thoroughly enjoy a historical fiction book without wondering what was real and what was fiction.
This is a character driven story and everyone in the book seemed genuine. I especially
I’m a sucker for maps and this book had a map of real places and one of fictional places that were within the real map’s area. There was also a handy characters list at the front of the book. I found myself referring to both of these frequently and found the character list indispensable, especially because a few of the characters went by more than one name.
It was so refreshing to see a book about World War II that’s about Nazi occupied Europe (in this case Northern Italy) where the populace helped Jewish citizens and refugees and partisians too, and where Jewish people often helped themselves and also often contributed significantly to the fight against the German occupiers. (At times it reminded me of another great Holocaust era novel: The Book Thief, which shows ordinary German citizens who help a Jewish man/Jewish people in Germany during the same Nazi era.)
There was actually much humor.
The book had a compelling message about what trauma can do to people and also made me think (more) about elderly people and what they might have been like when they were younger. I also thought the portrayals of the people's motivations and changes they experienced seemed very authentic.
I loved the meaning of the title A Thread of Grace.
I did think this was a fine novel and I appreciated the research that went into writing it.
What I didn’t like a lot but was okay:
I knew a bit more about this book than I would have liked before I read it, so I won’t say a lot, but I will say that it’s a book about a brutal war so the reader can expect a lot of carnage.
There are so many characters and there were a lot of times where I grew very attached to a character and then they didn’t appear again for many, many pages; there are a lot of subplots; in this book I guess the plot is a bunch of subplots as no single one really stood out for me.
What I didn’t like:
No, Hitler was not a vegetarian. I didn’t like that this book perpetuated that myth.
and:
Because of this book, I'd like to read more history about this area of Northern Italy during World War II. I'd also love to visit the area, even though I'd enjoy the cuisine of Southern Italy much more. It will have to be armchair traveling for me.
vivid picture of this dangerous period.
MDR has delivered again. She is six for six, for me. Here, she has directed her skillful sights on a little known chapter of WWII history, with her bold, writing style, uncanny characterization, and her usual meticulous dive into the research involved. It took her seven years to write this magnificent novel.
I didn't like it. I was bored and my mind wandered. I was very rarely interested in what
I am in awe of the amount and detail of the research that must have gone into the writing of this novel (the Author's Note and Readers' Guide at the end of the book are enlightening). I will definitely look for Ms. Russell's other novels.
This is a story that mourns the many by mourning only a few; every casualty in the novel is crushing because the characters are so real and you know that, in real life, such situations happened hundreds of times over and are left mostly as dry statistics rather than real lives cut short. Although the book certainly isn't happy, nor would I even call it hopeful, there is something to be said for the tenacity of everyone who struggled against Germany's domination and the spirit of all the characters who clung to family and love in times of such unimaginable turmoil.
At one time I knew. At one time I was a crumpled mess after reading The Sparrow, and then its sequel Children of God. Which were amazing books about
Parts of this book are uplifting. Parts of this book will make you fear those with absolutely certainty even more than you already do. Her characters are amazing. Flawed, terrified, brave, determined. The risks some of them take are absolutely breathtaking. You will love them. Which is, of course, the danger.
Spoilers ahead.
No, there are at least two other characters who lived. But still. There is a moment, at the end of the book, where there was the perfect opportunity to send home, even in a wounded and exhausted way, the scope of what all this accomplished. Russell doesn't take it. I know, we try so hard to find things to feel good about in WWII, and maybe Russell thinks we shouldn't feel good. But then don't say this book is about grace, then, okay?
Don't get me wrong. This is an amazing book. I cared so much and I learned so much. And I expected to end the book gutted, bleeding on the floor. I just thought she'd hand me some medicine, instead of telling me to go get some myself.