Two novels set....
In the summer of 1944, Italian partisans engaged in brutal battles with the Germans in the beautiful hills of Tuscany. As the SS began committing ghastly atrocities, terrified villagers fled to farmhouses in the hills for safety.
The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany, is the story of some of those villagers. It is, in fact, inspired by the experiences of the author's relatives, and the actual "Cielo" (literally "heaven") is now a farmhouse available for rent in Tuscany.
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...under the Tuscan sun
As the war rages all around them, the villagers at the farmhouse overcome petty differences, face betrayal by one of them, fearlessly take in an escaped POW, and survive a raid by the SS. In the course of this, a girl finds love, two boys become heroes, and secrets are revealed. Then an unthinkable, horrific event changes all of the villagers forever. Not all of them will return to their devastated homes.
The Cielo is a gripping story of courage, endurance and the power of the human spirit in the cruelest of times.
The sequel
Ten years later, after the tumultuous climax in The Cielo, the Resistance fighter whose code name was Sparrow is obsessed by one of the worst Nazi atrocities in Italy during WWII.
But he is also guilt-ridden.
Seeking retribution, he decides to relentlessly pursue the collaborator of this terrible tragedy.
His search takes him first to Florence and then to Pietrasanta, the lovely marble-making town on the western coast of Italy. There he meets the woman who will become a part of his journey and his life.
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They travel to the treacherous and mysterious land of the Garfagnana, where secrets are kept and fugitives can hide. Chased by thugs but with the help of aged partisans, they find their prey near a place fittingly called the Devil's Bridge.
Sparrow learns that not everything one has heard can be believed. But he also discovers something he has long hidden within himself.
Sparrow's Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany is an unforgettable tale of revenge, retribution, guilt and, finally, forgiveness.