Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel

Incredible. This story will stay with me for a long, long time!

There are no words to describe how much I loved this beautifully written book! What a story! This is based on a true life, and even if only half of this is true, WHAT A LIFE! I can totally believe that most of this is truth! Read (or listen. It's a wonderful audiobook) this soon! You won't regret

Show More

it!

Show Less

A very engrossing tale and a serious telling of the heroic participants standing up to the Nazi regime in Italy, a WWII location history seems to have forgotten. Pino Lella was a very interesting protagonist. Some have wondered if his experiences were embellished but knowing the pervasiveness of

Show More

the German war machine it's hard not to believe if not personally experienced, he may have been remembering experiences of others he knew. An extraordinary teenager determined to do what was right in the face of personal peril. I did enjoy the novel and appreciated learning of the Italian war history. What I tired of was the simple writing and somewhat cliche dialogue. The story itself deserved a more serious approach on the part of the author but all in all a serious historical saga.The section at the end titled, Aftermath, was greatly appreciated to explain what happened to some of the people so important to Pino's experience.

Show Less

An excellent novel based on a true story that takes place in Northern Italy during World War II. The main character is a young Italian boy just old enough to be drafted by the Nazi'z and sent to Russia where he will most likely die. His father who has made connections so he would be assigned to a

Show More

local contingent of Nazi military, convinces him to enlist in the German army. His compatriots consider him a traitor, not knowing he has become a spy for the partisans. The story relates the horrors of war for those who are occupied, some romance and some heroism of those to worked to save lives and resist the Facists. I especially appreciate the author telling the reader what happened to all the characters after the war.

Show Less

Beneath A Scarlet Sky
Mark Sullivan

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PUBLISHER Lake Union Publishing
PUBLISHED May 1, 2017

Masterful tale of a young man’s courageous struggle to fight for the greater good during the Nazi occupation of Milan during World War II.

SUMMARY
Although a work of

Show More

fiction this novel is based on a true story with a real hero. At the heart of the story is a normal seventeen-year-old Italian boy named Pino Lella. He is obsessed with music, finding a girl, and falling in love. But then in 1943, the bombs start dropping on Milan and his family home is destroyed. His parents send him to a camp in the mountains to escape the bombardment and the occupation. While in the mountains he guides Jewish refugees across rugged terrain to the Swiss border. When he returns to Milan his parents surprisingly insist that he voluntarily join the German army in order to avoid the draft and having to fight on the front lines. Pino’s role in the army as a driver for a high ranking German general, allows him to witness significant events during the war. Pino uses these opportunities to spy for the partisans until the war ends in 1945.

REVIEW
This is an unforgettable, authentic story of courage, love and forgiveness. Mark Sullivan’s amazing writing transports us to Milan in 1943 where he has captured the fear and anguish of the turbulent times. This epic novel is steeped in personal accounts of events, and as a result the details, dialogs and emotions are mesmerizing. Sullivan’s opportunity to interview the seventy-year old Pino Lella allowed Pino’s character in the book to come to life. Beneath A Scarlet Sky is full of ups and downs, trials and triumphs and love and heartbreak. I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates historical fiction. This is one of my very favorite books of 2017.

Show Less

Set in Italy during the German occupation/alliance, Pino joins an Underground Railroad to help Jews cross over the Alps. Forced to enlist by his parents who hope to protect him by mak No him, Pino becomes the personal driver of Hitler's left hand man in Italy. (Based on real person.)

This is a fantastic book about a little known hero from World War II. The author was able to spend time talking to this hero, who is still alive today, and did extensive research on the history during this time. The result is a page turner thriller that will keep you reading to find out how the

Show More

story ends.

Pino Lella is a typical teenager in Milan in the early 1940s. He in interested in girls and music and girls. He pays little attention to the Nazi occupation until the Allies start to bomb the city on a daily basis. His parents decide to send him to a boys school in the mountains that he has been to before, to keep him safe. He is anything but safe when he starts leading downed Allied pilots and people escaping from Italy to safety over a treacherous mountain route to Switzerland. He is called home by his parents who insist that he join the German Army - they felt it was safer to be in the German Army than the Italian Army and despite his misgivings, he follows his parents orders. Once again, he puts himself in danger and works for the resistance while he is a member of the German Army.

This is wonderful novel about a brave man during the war and its also the coming of age story of his life from being an innocent teenager to a young man who is searching for love and a peaceful life.

Show Less

Because I often love reading historical fiction, I was excited to delve into WWII through Mark Sullivan’s ‘Beneath a Scarlet Sky.’ The story is about an eighteen-year-old boy, Pino Lella, who falls for an attractive woman, Anna, who is six years his senior. Pino can think only of escorting

Show More

this beautiful woman to the movies, and he is disappointed when she stands him up. Meanwhile, Pino becomes witness to the ever-increasing tragedies and brutality of the Germans in Milan. To try to protect Pino from the dangers in Milan, Pino’s parents send him to an Italian convent near the Swiss Alps, where he helps to smuggle Jewish families across the mountain borders into Switzerland. When he returns home, Pino’s parents insist that he join the German army to avoid being conscripted and sent to combat. After an injury, Pino is recruited as a driver for Hitler’s right-hand man, General Leyer, and he endures rebuff from friends and family for becoming a traitorous Nazi. However, Pino serves as a spy for the opposition, and plays a pivotal role in assisting the Allies. By coincidence, Pino’s heartthrob, Anna, resurfaces in the story, as she happens to be the maid to General Leyer’s mistress. This time, Anna realizes Pino’s undying passion, as well as his sincerity towards her, and they fall in love. As the war comes to an end, Pino is hopeful for a resolution to the end of the war, and he looks forward to a bright future for himself and Anna. By the end of the novel, I was ready for the war to be over as well, but the author still had more unexpected events to occur in the epilogue.
Only upon finishing the novel, did I realize that Pino Lella, as well as all the other characters in the story, were characters in real life, and that the author extensively interviewed and researched the people and events, so that I felt this to be a true depiction of the experiences of the characters. The grit and the heartbreaking events were described so realistically that I felt it to be an amazing, complex story about the resilience of man and the will to survive.

Show Less

Wow. I'm just not even sure exactly what to say about this book. It's the incredible story of Pino Lella in the last two years of WWII. Mark Sullivan starts the book by stating the majority of the story is true but that he did have to fictionalize some of it due to gaps in the story that could not

Show More

be corroborated or remembered. It is a longer book but I didn't feel like it was dragging by at any point. It flows very nicely and keeps you wanting more. It's a different perspective on some of the things that happened during WWII especially in Italy which I don't think has been given much recognition. I highly recommend if you enjoy books set in this time period. You will be amazed at what Pino experiences in just two short years.

Show Less

I began with the book in print but changed to listening which worked perfectly for this previously untold story of a young man's experiences in Italy during WWII. I enjoyed the writing generally and was startled to realize how little I knew about that part of the war.

Most recently written books

Show More

about that time are unable to evoke the horrors as well as this author does. Am glad to see a popular current book that does so well at reminding readers about events that should not be forgotten

I downrated the book because of the purple prose used by the author whenever talking about the hero's beloved Anna. It was both startling and distracting to go from a description of random killings designed to subdue the population to a young man's obsession about a woman who was more vaguely described than most other characters in the book. Annoying when the author did so well at describing family members and the Germans.

Show Less

I have read many books about WWII, but this is the first one I have read about the plight of the Italian people. It was the forgotten front, but the people who lived it and fought it, will never forget it. When I met a soldier at the Canadian War Museum who fought in the Italian Campaign, I spent a

Show More

lot of time with him. He said very few people were interested in the events he was involved in. I hope this book opens people's eyes to that.

Seventeen year old Pino Lella and his family live in Milan. Pino's mother and brother leave Milan when the bomboing begins, but he remains with his father. When an Allied bomb hits their home and demolishes it, his father sends him north to Casa Alpina. This is a school where Pino spent much time in his youth and where his brother is living at the time. When he arrives, he assists Father Re in his dangerous missions of transporting Jews to safety in neutral Switzerland. Near Pino’s eighteenth birthday, his father sends an urgent message to return home. He is in danger of being drafted and sent to the Russian front. His father, mother and uncle want him to enlist in the German Army to avoid being drafted. Pino becomes the chauffeur/translator for General Leyers, Hitler’s left-hand-man in Italy. Using this position, he is able to give information to the resistance about the German plans.

This story is based upon a real person and their experiences. Of course research is not always able to find everything, so the author had to add some narration and conversations that might have happened. Pino was a teenager, his emotions and actions were always in line with his age. This is a wonderful book to add to the WWII genre. It is a great read for adults as well as Young Adults, being as the main character is a teenager when the story opens. This is an easy-reading, fast-paced book about how war brings out the worst and the best in people. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.

Show Less

This is an excellent book. The author has somewhat fictionalized a true story of WWII in Italy focusing on Milan. The characters are vibrant, the book is fast paced, and the story is passionate. I have read a lot of WWII history but was lacking in knowledge of the Italian resistance and the role of

Show More

the Organization Todt - it is truly a chilling tale.

Show Less

I hate having negative reviews of a book that I liked so much... Here goes...
The story of Pino Lella during World War II is amazing. The way the author tells it leaves a lot to be desired.
Dialogue is bad.
Research and confirmation of story is lacking.
The visuals I imagined from his writing were

Show More

stilted, black & white, and an amalgam of bad 1940s movies (including the three stooges for some reason).
That said I do highly recommend this book, because as I said the story is incredible. I honestly doubt the authenticity of some of it, but it is labeled as a novel so any liberties taken are allowed, but it's some of the parts that I doubt that make it so incredible.
Will highly recommend to teen readers, particularly juniors and seniors for the adventure, and Pino's search for identity, love, and purpose.

Show Less

Although this novel is historical fiction, it is based on the life of Pino Lella, an Italian WW2 freedom fighter. Pino wanted nothing more than to do what any Italian adolescent would do, such as assisting the family in their business, hanging out with friends, and going to movies and dances with

Show More

dates. However, when the war intensified in Milan, Pino and his brother were sent to northern Italy when they assisted a Catholic priest and his underground railroad by transporting Jews into neutral Switzerland. When his family brought him back to Milan, he was encouraged to join the German army which would allow him to stay in Italy. When circumstances arose allowing him to become the driver for General Leyers, a German officer who took orders only from Hitler and was the 2nd most powerful man in Italy during WW2. Pino's uncle encouraged him to take the position so he could spy on the German and Italian armies. However, he could not tell family and friends of his true motive in becoming the General's driver. In the months ahead, he is despised by his family and friends and being shot at by the Allies. The only person that makes his current life bearable is his girlfriend who works as the maid for the General's mistress.

I found Pino's exploits noteworthy for his skill and courage under fire, especially for someone in his late teens and early 20's. While reading this novel, coincidentally I found myself reading From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon. Beneath a Scarlet Sky displayed the Italian resistance while the latter provided me a perspective of the war from the Jewish perspective. Both books provided a realistic view of this war on Italy's citizens.

Show Less

We are taken to Italy, the last several years of World War II. Pino Lella, a teenager, at first helps Jews escape into Switzerland from a Catholic school in the mountains, run by a priest' Father Re. Then his family convinces him to enlist in the German army to avoid being sent to the Eastern

Show More

Front: the fate of Italian draftees. He becomes the driver for a high-ranking German officer, General Leyer, and spies for the Italians who support the Allies. The writing itself was nothing to write home about and the story was filled with too many happy coincidences and hair's breadth escapes. However, most of it was based on the truth, heard from Lello's own lips. All in all, an exciting story in spite of any blemishes and written about a part of WWII about which we hear little.

Show Less

Excellent book demonstrating how difficult it is to be brave. So many Nazi who were involved in unspeakable crimes seem to have escaped with money, their lives and no regrets. Sad that the girlfriends and maids did not get the same chance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this LONG novel based on the life of Giuseppe "Pimo" Lella and his WW II saga in Italy. I really had never read much about Italy's role in World War II, and this book gave an fascinating story of how the country was split between the partisans and Hitler's puppet, Mussolini. I

Show More

especially appreciated the Afterward section included by the author that detailed what happened to the many characters in the story. Although Pimo was an heroic character, and the war ended with the defeat of Hitler and his machine, Pimo's sacrifices during that time impacted his entire life. And everything that he did, the people he encountered, and the choices he made affected his life long after the war was but a bad memory. I appreciate Mark Sullivan's work and dedication to this story. A must read!

Show Less

A good story badly told. Pino Lella's adventures as an Italian teen during Nazi occupation are in turns exciting, unbelievable and entertaining. From escorting Jews through the Alps to Switzerland to spying for the resistance in a stint as a driver for a Nazi general, his story is a true one. But

Show More

it's hard to tell what might have been embellished. Sullivan should have and could have developed the narrative in a different way, perhaps not in strict chronological order. It was accordion-like in pacing and read like a young adult novel. Ok, but only ok.

Show Less

This is the first book I read completely on my Kindle Paperwhite and WOW did I pick an amazing book for it!!! This is the true story of Pino Lella, who risked his life as a spy (and in other ways!) during World War II. I don’t want to share too many details, but this brave man experienced so many

Show More

terrible, heartbreaking, amazing things that are unimaginable. I’m so glad someone discovered, researched and shared this amazing story. Highly recommend!

Show Less

Soon to be a major television event from Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland.

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of

Show More

history’s darkest hours.

Show Less

Sometimes reading was overly dramatic. Good story --- but very long. Interesting history of the main subject in his later. years

Fascinating story, especially it is "based on fact." Can't help wondering how much was fact and how much was fiction. If it was mostly fact, Pino Lella led an extraordinary life.

Based on a real story, this book is about an Italian boy, Pino Lella, who lives in Milan with his parents and younger brother during World War II. His father sends him to a camp run by a priest in the Italian Alps. There he is given the task of helping Jews cross the Alps into Switzerland. Just

Show More

before he turns 18 his father calls him back and tells him to enlist in the German Army. His reasons are that if Pino ended up in the Italian army he would be nothing more than cannon fodder but if he voluntarily joins the German army he can choose where he serves, and he chooses the Organization Todt. This branch is responsible for clearing roads, requisitioning stores for the Nazis, and building, usually with the aid of conscripted Italians who become little more than slaves.

Pino was injured in a bombing and while he was recovering he helped a driver repair the car which happened to belong to General Hans Leyers, the head of the Todt. When the general learned of his engineering skills and ability to speak French, he fires the other guy and takes on Pino on the spot. Pino spends the rest of the war in this position, able to report on sensitive military movements.

I felt the anguish Pino suffered being unable to tell his friends and neighbors why he was dressed in a German uniform with a Nazi armband. I also enjoyed the cliche story of young love with the bombs falling all around. Since the girl in question was the maid of the General's girlfriend, he always carried a small amount of doubt that she was on their side.

This was a thrilling book ending with a car drive to rival any chase scene in the movies.

For those of you who are interested, this book is perfectly appropriate for teens and they are a perfect audience for it.

Show Less

Excellent account of a teenage boy secretly leading Italian Jews to freedom in Switzerland during WWII. This was an easy story to follow and provided a plethora of good information about the geography of the Italian Alps and the history of the German and Allied fighting in Italy in 1943-44. Of

Show More

course, the ravages of war are fully exposed and the unbelievably difficult decisions faced by everyone involved are both heart breaking and appalling, so it is sometimes difficult to read. The book has been carefully researched and the reign of one of the most powerful commanders under Hitler, General Leyers, is finely detailed along with the decline of Mussolini. The story also tells the impact of the war on Pino's family and close friends.

Show Less