Early One Morning
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4.3 • 16 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Two women's decision to save a child during WWII will have powerful reverberations over the years.
Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family. Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.
Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As Nazi soldiers march into Rome in 1943, 26-year-old spinster Chiara Ravello prepares to flee to the countryside with her sister, Cecilia, whose frequent seizures have left her with the mind of a child. As Chiara passes the Jewish Quarter, a young mother wordlessly shoves her seven-year-old son into Chiara's arms. She smuggles the boy, named Daniele, to her grandparents' farm, and later raises him to adulthood. Decades later, in 1973, a Welsh teenager named Maria Kelly discovers that Daniele is her father, and her quest for answers leads her to Chiara, who initially chooses to describe herself merely as Daniele's former landlady. Maria's arrival in Rome stirs up heartbreaking memories for Chiara, who has not seen or spoken to Daniele in 10 years. Eventually, she'll have to tell Maria about the true nature of her relationship with Daniele and contend with three decades' worth of shameful memories. Baily's cast of remarkable, memorable characters each with their own set of demons drives a plot that's filled with unexpected twists and manages to populate the well-trodden literary arenas of World War II, the Italian countryside, and hidden family secrets with a fresh perspective and an unexpected resolution. Baily's novel hums with emotional resonance.
