THE BOOK FAIR

The intriguing novel moves back and forth from 1943 to 2006. Beautifully written, descriptive passages define lively, sympathetic characters in an eventful plot.   During the middle of WW II, in 1943, Italy switches allegiance from the Germans and joins the Allies.  Some Italians however, harbored different allegiances.

 

Florence:   September, 1943.   The Cammaccio family celebrates the ousting of Il Duche, Mussolini, and the signing of the armistice by Italy’s new government.  Caterina , the elder daughter, dreams of her fiancé, who serves in the Italian navy, and plans her wedding awaiting his homecoming.  The younger daughter, Isabella, nineteen years old, plans her second year at the university.

 

After the German army invades Italy, the Cammaccio family, trapped in the upheaval of war, resists the German occupation.  The Germans unleash the Italian Fascists and Nazi sympathizers on the population and begin the roundups of Jews.  The Nazis, relentless in their pursuit of resistance fighters, partisans, and communists, hold their captives in the Ville Triste.

 

Florence 2006:  Police Inspector Alessandro Pallioti investigates the murder of an elderly man, who, the Inspector learns, was a partisan from WW II.  After the second murder of an elderly partisan, Pallioti determines to solve the cases.  A search among the partisan’s belongings produces a diary that fully intrigues the Inspector.

 

Note:

Italy suffered some of the fiercest fighting during the war; of two-hundred thousand partisan fighters, thirty-five thousand were women.