A Thread of Grace

I started reading Mary Doria Russell's latest book in Italy and finished it when I got home. This is a historical fiction book set in northern Italy in the last months of WWII after the Italians surrendered and when Italy was being occupied by Germans. She tells the story of the poor hill people and others in larger cities who help the resistance movement against the Germans and who hide Jews. I started it thinking I might recommend it for book group, but it's a definite no.

This book is complicated: there are a lot of characters and she moves between their stories quickly. It is hard to keep track of them all and I never felt like I really got to know them. It is book full of tragic stories. All of the characters seem to end up getting killed. I kept wondering what the Thread of Grace was. There seemed to be no redemption for Russell's characters. Even Renzio, the man who was tortured by his past involvement in battle and who seemed bent on self destruction, who I thought would ironically be one of the only survivor, was killed after the Germans surrendered.

This is on one of the final pages

There's a saying in Hebrew, he tells her. 'No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.'

I guess maybe the thread of grace is the sacrifices these people made to help save the Jews. Russell tells the little known story of the many Italians who helped hide the Jews.

I didn't love this book.