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A Thread of Grace
by Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell's
extraordinary and complex historical novel, A Thread of Grace is the kind of book that you will find yourself haunted
by long after finishing the last page. It opens with a group of Jewish refugees being escorted to safe-keeping
by Italian soldiers. After making the arduous journey over a steep mountain pass, they are welcomed into a
small village with warm food and clean beds. They have barely laid their heads to rest when news is received
that Mussolini has just surrendered Italy to Hitler, putting them in danger yet again. This opening sequence
is a grim foreshadowing of the heart-breaking journey these characters will experience in their struggle for
survival.
The rich fictional narrative is woven through the factual military maneuvers
and political games at the end of WW II, sharing a little-known story of a group of Italian citizens that
sheltered more than 40,000 Jews from grueling work camp executions. Rather than the bleak and hopeless feeling
that might be expected, the novel has the opposite effect; it reminds us that just as there will always be
war, crime, and death, so too will there be good people who selflessly sacrifice themselves to ease the suffering
of others. Perhaps best of all, Russell succinctly opens and closes her writing with short pieces that bookend
the story with the force of a freight train. Her moving finale wraps up her narrative in the present day,
with a death bed scene that's sure to rip the heart out of readers of every faith and ancestry. --Victoria
Griffith --This
text refers to the Hardcover edition.
(Click
here for price and order information)
Annie quickly finds that though they are only two miles from the Italian Riviera, it might
as well be a hundred. Liguria is an old town full of time-honored peculiarities, especially in regard to espresso
consumption (never, ever, after lunch; it will close your stomach) and swimming before summertime officially
starts. "Seawater at the wrong time of year is even worse for your health than coffee at the wrong time of day, and the beach is only deserted because, as far as the citizens are concerned, if you put so much as a toe into the water before June you are certain to die within the week from exposure or pneumonia or both," says
Hawes. Eventually, the sisters are accepted by the townsfolk, though they find the idea of the women buying
the farmhouse and running it themselves (there are 50 olive trees on the land) fantastical.
Extra Virgin draws you in to the heart of Liguria and its inhabitants. Hawes has a knack
for drawing characters and especially for describing the luscious meals that they are served--and eventually
learn to cook. "Lucy and I are kindly allowed to make the tomato-and-basil salad," Hawes says, "and do our best not to be offended by being complemented on how like a proper tomato-and-basil salad it is." Pour
yourself an espresso (as long as it's before lunch) or a grappa (aids the digestion), and then sit down to enjoy Extra Virgin.
(Click here for an excerpt, as well as price and order information)
Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted
by Annie Hawes
Fed up with cold, foggy London and the high cost of real estate, Annie Hawes is persuaded by
her sister Lucy to travel to Italy and graft roses for the winter. The sisters arrive in rural Liguria with
some formal Italian, no knowledge of rose grafting, and visions of Mediterranean men and sun. What they find
is a town full of hard-working, wary olive growers smack in the middle of an olive oil depression who think
these two young Englishwomen are nuts. Extra Virgin tells the story of the sisters' acclimation--theirs to Liguria and Liguria to them--and how they fell in love with a crumbling farmhouse in the hills.
