The Bishop’s Villa
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٥٫٠ - ١ تقييم
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- 14٫99 US$
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- 14٫99 US$
وصف الناشر
From the author of Nives, a story of love, redemption, and resistance set in Italy during WWII
Tuscany, November 1943. The village of Le Case is miles from any big city and appears rooted in an earlier century. Seen from there, even the war looks different—it is mostly a matter of waiting, praying, and mourning. As a fierce winter threatens, an order is issued by the local Fascist authorities: all Jews must be rounded up and detained in the bishop’s villa to await deportation.
Shy, solitary, and taciturn René is the town’s cobbler. His only friend is the widow Anna, a woman with whom he has been secretly in love for years. When Anna’s son joins the Resistance and is swiftly captured and shot by the Wehrmacht, the grieving woman vows to continue her son’s mission, and one evening, she disappears into the woods. René later learns that a group of Resistance fighters has been ambushed and the survivors are imprisoned in the bishop’s villa. A woman is among them, they say, a grieving mother and former inhabitant of Le Case.
René can no longer stand by and watch as his town, his country, and his one great love become victims of the Nazis and their Fascist enablers, and he decides to take action. Perhaps for the first time in his life.
Based on the true story of a nefarious collaboration between the Catholic diocese of Grosseto and the Fascist authorities, The Bishop’s Villa is a masterful weaving together of fact and fiction by one of Italy’s most exciting young writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Naspini (Nives) delivers a moving historical set in occupied Tuscany during WWII. René, a cobbler whose maimed hand kept him out of the army, harbors an unspoken love for Anna, his widowed seamstress neighbor, whose son was recently executed by German soldiers. Before he can declare his feelings, she sneaks off to join partisans in the forest, leaving behind a note asking René to continue visiting her apartment, so the Nazis won't suspect she's left. The charade marks René's first step from timidity to defiance. He also sabotages soldiers' boots in his workshop, "fixing" them with rusty nails. When the Nazis discover Anna's absence, they imprison René at a seminary–turned–concentration camp, leased by a spineless local bishop to the puppet Italian government. There, René withstands vicious beatings without giving up any information. Naspini subtly shows René's continuing evolution, from his refusal to join in antisemitic taunts to treating a freezing and starving Jewish prisoner with dignity. Drama ensues as René conspires with his fellow inmates on an escape plan, only to face a betrayal. Naspini's sobering portrait of moral weakness in the face of power will stay with readers a long time.
