My Father’s House
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4.2 • 90 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by a true story, My Father’s House is the extraordinary World War II account of a daring attempt to smuggle thousands of innocents through the Vatican and out of occupied Rome right under the noses of the city’s Nazi occupiers.
September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. SS Commander Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, a neutral, independent state nestled in the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits with Hauptmann and his soldiers.
Suspenseful and beautifully written, My Father’s House tells an unforgettable story of love, faith, sacrifice, and courage.
“A literary thriller of the highest order.”—The Guardian
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Brimming with heroism and heart, this World War II saga is historical fiction at its most intense. Joseph O’Connor based the novel on the real-life experiences of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, Ireland’s representative in the Vatican, often known as the Irish Schindler. He changes some of the names and details, but the basic story remains factual, beginning with the Nazi occupation of Rome, during which time the Vatican was a safe zone, and charting how O’Flaherty and his crew helped save thousands of Jews and escaped POWs using disguises, secret codes, and even an undercover choir. O’Connor shifts time and perspective back and forth between the ’40s and the ’60s, dropping us right into the action but also portraying the characters’ reflections as they look back at a harrowing time. My Father’s House is a gripping read—and a testament to the human spirit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The riveting latest from O'Connor (Shadowplay), the first in a trilogy, chronicles the meticulous planning and execution of the escape of hundreds of Allied prisoners and Jews hiding in Vatican City during WWII. It's December 1943 and Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and seven associates who refer to themselves as "the Choir" have exploited the Vatican's sovereignty as a minuscule neutral state to hide refugees from the Nazi occupation of Rome in numerous abandoned sheds, bombed-out buildings, and tunnels. Though they undertake their work with extreme caution—using aliases and forged IDs, referring to their charges in formal communications as "Books" and the hiding places as "Shelves"—they have aroused the suspicion of brutal Gestapo Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann, whose efforts to apprehend the fugitives come to a head early Christmas morning. Through wonderfully developed and varied characters, O'Connor conveys both the painful privations of life during wartime and the nobility of the Choir's goals, and the unfolding of O'Flaherty's marathon of undercover subterfuges that lay the groundwork for their mission in the middle section is a storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction.
