March 16, 2017

A Letter From Italy Pamela Hart

book cover
Published: Hachette NZ
Date: March 14th 2017
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 356
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source:Hachette NZ
Rating:
4.5 stars                    Add to Goodreads
1917, Italy. Australian journalist Rebecca Quinn is an unconventional woman. At the height of World War I, she has given up the safety of her Sydney home for the bloody battlefields of Europe, following her journalist husband to the frontline as a war correspondent in Italy.

Reporting the horrors of the Italian campaign, Rebecca finds herself thrown together with American-born Italian photographer Alessandro Panucci, and soon discovers another battleground every bit as dangerous and unpredictable: the human heart.


My thoughts banner
A Letter From Italy is set in Italy during World War 1. Rebecca an Australian, has arrived with her husband Jack Quinn to report the war to an English and Australian newspaper. It is still a time when women news correspondents were really not in existence or not accepted. Rebecca comes from a family where women's rights were strong, her mother an active suffragette. The Italian attitude to women comes as both a bit of a shock and a challenge to Rebecca.

Rebecca is a strong woman, with flaws, but passionate about her work. She is determined to prove herself and report what she sees and hears about. She is relentless in her pursuit of what might make a news story and report to those at home what is going on. And she does so with a woman's heart and compassion.  Along the way she learns how her husband Jack is not all that she first thought, which brings out actually the best in her.

Along with Rebecca we meet Sandro, or Al as he is known back in New York. He is helping out his Nonna, Nonna Rosa a woman with a story of her own I am sure. Sandro has been unable to join the war efforts and up until now has struggled with it. But alongside Rebecca he finds something that he can accomplish and so participate in the war effort.

The story is really well told, small details make it feel like a factual, real account. We meet some of the actual heroes in that war and witness the pain and loss of the young men that went off to fight that war. 

As well Italy is brought to life, the countryside, the food, the people and their way of life at that time. 

Well worth the read.  Once begun hard to put down.

About the Author
Pamela is an award-winning author for adults and children. She has a Doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney. Under the name of Pamela Freeman she wrote the historical novel The Black Dress, which won the NSW Premier's History Prize for 2006. Pamela lives in Sydney, with her husband and their son, and teaches at the Australian Writers' Centre. A Letter From Italy is her thirtieth book.

Find her at her website Pamela Hart




6 comments:

  1. Looks like a book I would LOVE!! Thanks

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  2. I really want to read this one! The setting and the time period and now your glowing review have convinced me to read it.

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  3. I love reading about journalists during the wars. The setting and era call to me. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I'm reading a few WWII books now but I don;t think I have read any WWI! This one sounds good !

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  5. This seems like a slightly different kind of historical fiction. The women are usually nurses or more in a traditional profession. I like how this woman is a news correspondent, something I never imagined for a book set in WWI.

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