Courage, My Love
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
When the Nazi occupation of Rome begins, two courageous young women are plunged deep into the Italian Resistance to fight for their freedom in this captivating debut novel.
Rome, 1943
Lucia Colombo has had her doubts about fascism for years, but as a single mother in an increasingly unstable country, politics are for other people--she needs to focus on keeping herself and her son alive. Then the Italian government falls and the German occupation begins, and suddenly, Lucia finds that complacency is no longer an option.
Francesca Gallo has always been aware of injustice and suffering. A polio survivor who lost her father when he was arrested for his anti-fascist politics, she came to Rome with her fiancé to start a new life. But when the Germans invade and her fiancé is taken by the Nazis, Francesca decides she has only one option: to fight back.
As Lucia and Francesca are pulled deeper into the struggle against the Nazi occupation, both women learn to resist alongside the partisans to drive the Germans from Rome. But as winter sets in, the occupation tightens its grip on the city, and the resistance is in constant danger.
In the darkest days, Francesca and Lucia face their pasts, find the courage to love, and maintain hope for a future that is finally free.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beck debuts with a promising dive into the lives of two Italian women who resisted the Nazi occupation of Rome. Chapters alternate between Francesca, a polio survivor who joins the resistance and ascends to its highest ranks after German soldiers kidnap her fiancé, and Lucia, a young mother whose anti-Fascist husband left her under mysterious circumstances five years before. Lucia must first overcome her family's Fascist leanings, and finds the courage to join the resistance following the capture and killing of a Jewish friend. Though Francesca and Lucia are strangers at first, they find common ground in the resistance. Driven by this strength, they become spies and assassins, fueled by their shared belief that "anger alone isn't enough... we have to act." Together, they organize a band within the resistance that is instrumental to freeing Rome from its German captors. Unfortunately, the backdrop of war often stands in for deeper characterization, with the characters serving as symbols of feminist grit and determination rather than rounded wholes. It's certainly rousing, but it doesn't rise to the top ranks of the current trend of WWII fiction featuring strong women protagonists.
