Publication Date: January 28,
2021
Format: Audio
Genre: Historical Mystery Thriller
Narrator: Richard Armitage
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Publisher: WF Howes Ltd
Length: 12 hours 40 min
Buy: Kindle | Audio
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Synopsis
At his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift
that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the
haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in
Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943.
The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of
men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal. Awkward
fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved
grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets
he's waited his whole life to share.
When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches - earning
him a week's suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail
Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep
from his father. A tale of blood and madness . . .
Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething
under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather's
life: when Paolo's support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the
sights of the city's underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico
can't stop reading - but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved
grandfather at all.
Review:
Nico's grandfather, Paolo, entrusts to him a dark secret, a secret that
he's kept all his life. Each day that Nico goes to visit his
grandfather, he gives him an envelope containing part of a story of his
life. Its a story of love, strength, resilience and also a
cautionary tale.
Set in Venice as the Nazi's occupied Italy as the Jews are rounded up
and life as everyone knows it changes drastically, Paolo is asked to
hide 2 Jews who are trying to flee, a brother and sister. The
brother is injured and needs a safe place to rest before they flee.
In the meantime, Paolo is struggling to fulfill an order for the
velvet that his family is known for. Unfortunately they only have
one weaver and not enough time.
After Paolo's death Nico doesn't know what to do with the story and is
afraid to learn the ending. He can't face what he knows is written
in the final words of his beloved grandfather, so he flees Italy.
He goes to university in England and doesn't return until a phone
call from his father in hospital brings him back to a world much changed
from when he was there as a young man. Once again hatred and
intolerance is rising and as his family's velvet workshop is transformed
into loft apartments that he is tasked with dedicating. With Nano
Paolo's story ringing in his ears he realizes what he must do.
Beautifully written and narrated I found myself transported to 1943
Italy, I could hear the whispers of the looms as they worked, and feel
the passion of first love. The fear of being discovered, and the bravery
to stand up. Such a timely novel in a time of rising hatred and
intolerance across the world for immigrants and everyone different.
This is also a beautiful tribute to the Italian jews and others
who lost their lives to the Nazi's during the occupation.
I find myself coming back to this story and hearing the whisper of the
looms when I least expect it.
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