Peter was born in Leeds, England, but when war broke out, his family ended up in Italy. It was quite an adjustment. They suddenly hadn't been welcome in England, and now they were seen as outsiders in Italy as well.
With Peter's father off fighting in the war, the family struggles to survive. His mother isn't used to country living, and she doesn't speak the language. The interesting thing is that Peter's father leaves to fight a Fascist and returns firmly anti-fascist.
After that, it's a fight to survive. The front line never quite makes it to the area where Peter lives, but that doesn't mean the area is unaffected. When his area is touched, Peter will start by "zooming out" and giving an overview of what's going on, then gradually zooming back in to tell how it affects his area in particular. In some ways this might be seen as a bit too much detail, or you might be thankful for the perspective. It's a personal preference. I felt like Peter "zoomed" out a bit far a bit too often.
I gave this a 4/5 stars on amazon. I did appreciate that sometimes he would mention the names (and often ages) of people murdered as retaliation or for no reason at all. One small pet peeve was at the end, when he returns to his childhood home, and he goes to find his friend. The friend's mother answers the door, but we never find out if the friend made it through the war. Also, you have to flip past the notes and the bibliography to find the pictures. I wish these had been spread throughout the book in appropriate places instead of seeming like an afterthought at the end. Overall, it was a pretty good read and an interesting perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment