Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Purports to be a true story, however as you read through a 17yr old boy's adventures in north Italy during the war as an alpine guide for fleeing jews via the catholic underground railroad and later as a spy posing as a driver for a high ranking german general you become increasingly suspicious of it's truth claims. So I did a bit of googling and amazingly it is true! including all the real life celebrities the principle met throughout his life and what later happened to the german General.
The book strong points are setting of the war background , its tense atmosphere and sense of chaos, its plot and generally its sense of being there. Where it could have been (slightly) better is character depth ie some characters are one dimensional good or bad. Romantic/sex scenes are notoriously difficult to write and it shows in this book where the author using the analogy of violins playing when the two main characters kiss hmmm. The author is a journalist and it shows, he has a great knack of creating a narrative of the facts and background info but struggles a bit with the more romantic aspects. But overall its a very good book. Soon to be a movie with the young lad who played spiderman in the latest movie. Will look forward to that.
Prob a 4.5 me amazing tale that the world should know. I know I'll never forget it. Thank you Mr Sullivan
Sounds interesting. Quite fancy this one.
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