Like a thousand suns...: Book Review!!! The Girl from Bologna (Girls from the Italian Resistance) by Siobhan Daiko #HistoricalFiction #WomensFiction #WWII @siobhandaiko @maryanneyarde

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A modern-day investigation, a past comes back to haunt. Everything affects everything, for the past is never past, and memories from the 1940s could be the key to what is happening in modern-day 1981.

Leila has opened her home to Rhiannon Hughes, who has come to Italy as an exchange student, hoping to improve her Italian. When she is not talking to Rhiannon, or sorting out meals, Leila has decided to record her memories of the war. She joined a Gappisti group when her best friend was deported as a Jew, and she was involved in several operations. Her story is told as she dictates her memories to a recorder, and we only learn what she shares.

Rhiannon’s story was, I think, my favourite. While she didn’t have anything to do with Italy during the second world war, she is fighting a battle of her own. She has a fellow student, who she has become friends with, but she is completely unsure about her. The friend, Marie, has several odd things about her, with regards to the people she somehow knows. Together with Leila’s nephew, Gianluca, Rhiannon finds herself investigating, trying to find out more about Marie, and to discover just what the truth really is.

This book doesn’t focus on any relationships in particular. Leila had a sweetheart, whom she talks about when recording, but she doesn’t mention him too much outside of them. Rhiannon and Gianluca are just friends, Gianluca lost a fiancé several years ago and hasn’t gotten over her loss, and Rhiannon has never been the relationship kind of person. Still, the more time they spend around each other, the more they seem drawn to each other. I loved seeing them slowly realise their feelings, and some of the subsequent scenes were rather romantic.

This book was wonderfully compelling, and there is just enough mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat, trying to guess the truth, so it is almost impossible to put the book down and stop reading.

Bologna, Italy, 1944, and the streets are crawling with German soldiers. Nineteen-year-old Leila Venturi is shocked into joining the Resistance after her beloved best friend Rebecca, the daughter of a prominent Jewish businessman, is ruthlessly deported to a concentration camp.

In February 1981, exchange student Rhiannon Hughes arrives in Bologna to study at the university. There, she rents a room from Leila, who is now middle-aged and infirm. Leila’s nephew, Gianluca, offers to show Rhiannon around but Leila warns her off him.

Soon Rhiannon finds herself being drawn into a web of intrigue. What is Gianluca’s interest in a far-right group? And how is the nefarious head of this group connected to Leila? As dark secrets emerge from the past, Rhiannon is faced with a terrible choice. Will she take her courage into both hands and risk everything?

An evocative, compelling read, “The Girl from Bologna” is a story of love lost, daring exploits, and heart wrenching redemption.

Trigger Warnings:

War crimes against women

If you would like to read this novel you can find it at the following bookstores:

Amazon

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Siobhan Daiko is a British historical fiction author. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband, a Havanese dog and a rescued cat. After a life of romance and adventure in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK, Siobhan now spends her time indulging her love of writing and enjoying her life near Venice.