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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780449004135
ISBN number: 0449004139
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: December 06, 2005
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: December 06, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 10007
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Set in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the very first in seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of God.
It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive.
Mary Doria Russell sets her very first historical novel against this dramatic background, tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters. Through them, she tells the little-known but true story of the network of Italian citizens who saved the lives of forty-three thousand Jews during the war’s final phase. The result of five years of meticulous research, A Thread of Grace is an ambitious, engrossing novel of ideas, history, and marvelous characters that will please Russell’s many fans and earn her even more.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review:
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.
On the surface, Russell's third novel may seem quite different from her earlier works. Both The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God , were futuristic stories about Earth's very first contact with alien life forms, but a closer look reveals several similarities. Fans of her earlier books will be pleased to find that Emilio Sandoz, the charismatic Jesuit priest from the very first two books, finds new life in Renzo Leoni--A Thread of Grace's charming and haunted chameleon. The two have different circumstances and histories, but both characters are made of the same cloth--tormented by their consciences and plagued by unrequited love. Also similar to her earlier books, the characters in A Thread of Grace don't all enjoy a happy ending. A note in the reader's guide tells us that Russell flipped a coin to determine the fate of some of the characters. This may be upsetting for many readers, particularly those used to Hollywood endings, but it does serve as a frank reminder of the arbitrary nature of war and death. --Victoria Griffith
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Rated by buyers 
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Very interesting novel based on extensive research of the northwest region of Italy after Italy capitulated during WWII and the Germans then occupied Italy. The story describes the tremendous risks the Italian people took to hide both Italian Jews as well as Jews who had escaped from other Nazi-occupied countries.
Although I have read numerous Holocaust-related stories, I was unaware of these historical events. Mary Doria Russell is to be commended for taking a complex subject area and creating a tapestry of people to bring this story to life.
-- Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL
Rated by buyers 
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As I have indicated in my many reviews of books from this period, I am a fan of tales of the human courage that was displayed throughout Europe in WW2 by ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the face of incredible danger. In as expert a fashion as Alan Furst in The Polish Officer: A Novel and Douglas W Jacobson in Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II, Mary Doria Russell brings us up close and personal with compelling characters we care about. Expertly crafted are Doktor Schramm, the Nazi deserter trying to reconcile the sins he committed in the name of the Fatherland, Don Tomitz, the Italian catholic priest putting his life on the line to save Jews, and a host of others whose lives become intertwined in the earthy reality of war time in Porto Sant' Andrea. Bravo for a highly readable tale of human courage. You'll stay up at night to finish it.
Rated by buyers -
I like books with happy endings. A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell, is not a book of happy endings - not at all. Yet, I will read it again subsequent year.
I don't just like her book, I love it. In the midst of a story that covers the worst atrocity in human history, and littered with characters of questionable morality and worse deeds, Mary Doria Russell manages to find a thread of grace, and to convince me that it is genuine and enduring.
Russell visited the places she describes in her novel, and interviewed survivors of the war. Her original research lends an authentic, present quality to her prose - an immediacy that caught me up into the lives her characters.
There is no question that Russell not only makes history live again, she proves beyond any doubt that it's relevant to our times and our lives.
Rated by buyers -
My only complaint about this book was that I frequently got some of the characters confused. This may have been more from my not reading the book on a daily basis, than the author's fault.
It is a fascinating look into a side of WWII that I had not considered and a group of people I had not thought of. The author really does a great job putting you into that time and place and with those people. The culture came alive for me.
The story was easy to read. I could easily follow the plot, and was surprised by where she took some of the characters (despite my having them confused). If you are interested in WWII history, I greatly recommend this book.
Rated by buyers -
This book is set in rural Italy near the end of World War II. It follows the lives of Jewish refugees from several countries in Europe and the Christian Italians who risk their own safety to take them in. The author draws full, interesting characters of all ages. She is especially good with teenagers and young adults. There are some German soldiers, who are wooden by comparison.
This book has a very heavy-hearted topic, and includes violent scenes. However, it is a story of human courage and tenacity and doesn't end badly for all the characters.
Extremely well written and well worth the time. This is the best World War II novel; that I have read, ever.
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