Once Night Falls by Roland Murello

ARC provided by Lake Union for an honest review

Italy, 1943. Luca Benedetto has joined the partisans in their fight against the German troops ravaging the shores of his town on Lake Como. While risking his life to free his country, Luca is also struggling to protect Sarah, his Jewish lover who’s hiding in a mountain cabin. As the violent Nazi occupation intensifies, Luca and Sarah fear for more than their own lives. In the heart of their village, their mothers have also found themselves vulnerable to the encroaching Nazis. But Luca’s mother, undeterred, is devising her own revenge on the occupiers. With Mussolini deposed and Allied armies fighting their way up the peninsula, the fate of Italy hangs in the balance, and the people of Lake Como must decide how much they’re prepared to sacrifice for family, friends, and the country they love.

My Review: 4 stars

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Once Night Falls introduced me to a different perspective from World War II – that of Mussolini and the Italians. Rather than focusing on the Jews plight during the war, or Hitler’s rise to infamy and subsequent atrocities, Murello’s novel focuses on an array of characters experiencing the war as Italians.

The chapters alternate between many characters – a sympathetic priest, a Jewish woman in hiding, an Italian mother and wife, an eager partisan & more. I liked how each character came from a different background and who had a unique stake and fear in the war. Just as we were given insight into what Mussolini was facing, we were also given insight into the Italian partisans. It made the novel feel more real because we didn’t just have one hero. We were seeing both sides, and the small sacrifices that went into the war, versus just the battles and fights we hear about in history books.

I enjoyed learning about the war through the varying points of view as it gave me a wider scope to understand the Italian’s plight, however, was disappointed that I didn’t get the full picture from any of them. Because Murello switches between the characters often, I didn’t feel a huge connection with any of them. Perhaps because I wasn’t with them for long enough periods of time.

This book definitely gave me a better sense of Italy’s role in World War II and I have a better grasp on their political struggle. I found myself more interested in the factual, historical details than the fictional storylines that were supposed to bring the truth to light. Overall, I liked this novel, but have really enjoyed his past books much more.

Quotes I liked:

A strange thing, he thought, the way the human mind could form false systems of belief and cling to them in the face of the laws of love and the certainty of death.”