Skip to main content

My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor


 Another winner from the books recommended by my local library.  This time it's an historical novel set in the Second World War but this account is set in the Vatican City sitting as a neutral space in the centre of occupied Rome.

The book is about the true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and the Rome Escape Line, but as the author is quick to point out, it is largely a work of fiction with its inspiration taken from real events. Nevertheless, it captures the very real dangers involved in trying to get escaped allied prisoners of war back to a place of safety.

The Monsignor was Irish by birth, and he's a big man with an interest in boxing so he has the physical strength to carry out one of the most daring missions carried out during the war.  In September 1943 the German forces occupied Rome and the feared member of the Gestapo, Paul Hauptmann, was tasked to put a stop to escaped prisoners using the neutral Vatican City as a means to escaping back to their home countries.  By December of the same year it becomes clear that the Germans are planning a large scale search for hidden prisoners of war and it is imperative that a mission is carried out to ensure as many as possible get away over Christmas. Anyone taking part in the mission in any way would be tortured and killed if captured, and many more people in Rome would almost certainly be rounded up and killed in retaliation.

The Monsignor establishes a choir that operates in plain sight but masks the activities of a group of unlikely friends who will plan and carry out the mission.  It will be known by the code name 'Rendimento' which means 'performance' and as the days count down towards Christmas the Germans take more and more interest in the activities of the big Irish priest.  A man of his size is hard to disguise, so he is easily followed and files are put together on his movements and who he associates with.

The book is broken into various accounts of what happened during that critical month of December, and gradually all the pieces of the story fit together to make a whole.  There is real tension in the build up to the Rendimento and every hour is critical.  The author ends the book in the present day and it reminded me of films such as Saving Private Ryan when we meet the surviving characters in old age and see the lasting impact that the war had on the rest of their lives.  I could easily see this book becoming a film and I have just discovered that it is the first of a trilogy so I will look out for the others.  The sequel is called The Ghosts of Rome.

As a means of cover for the mission
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Violeta by Isabel Allende

Published: 2022, Bloomsbury Genre: Fiction Themes: South America, family relationships, business My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If I ever tell my life story, I will take a leaf out of Violeta's book and make sure you understand that everybody loved me, and despite all sorts of questionable behaviour on my part, I leave the world as a winner. This is the story of a hundred year life.  Violeta is approaching the end, but before she goes she is determined to write out her life story for someone she loves dearly.  You don't get to know who that special someone is for most of the book, but that just serves to give the narrative a little twist. I didn't much like the character of Violeta but I understand that people who don't go round upsetting the apple cart don't make for very interesting stories.  With such a great time span to play with, Isabel Allende had plenty of scope for changing Violeta's circumstances and adding in references to world events to keep the reader...
Post a Comment
Read more

Holding by Graham Norton

  Published: October 2016, Hodder and Stoughton Genre: fiction Themes: Ireland, crime, secrets, relationships, family My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ I went into the library looking for a book by Graham Norton as I keep seeing positive comments about his books on Twitter, and I felt I might be missing something. Holding seems to be his first book, and the library copy has a Radio 2 Book Club sticker on it, and I think it's fair to say that it's a perfect book for that reading group.  It's a chatty style of writing that I could imagine would be how Graham would recount a tale if he was in conversation with someone, and there are sufficient strong elements to the plot-line to keep it interesting to the end.  When I first started reading I thought it was going to be a bit thin on plot, as much of the story involved character descriptions, and I was starting to wonder how it was going to pull together.  Then the dramatic events began to unfold and, once I could see how everyon...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

  Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤  If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book. Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel.  As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape.  Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel ow...
Post a Comment
Read more