R. J. J. Hall

I received this book from Goodreads free.

It tells the story of two soldiers, Frank and Edmund who are in Naples as soldiers in WWII. They are very different men with differing outlooks on life. When Frank discovers an opera house he manages to reopen it and put on shows for the army. Edmund can't understand why a soldier would want to do this and gets back to the front-line and the fighting.

to add to this is Vermillion the girlfriend of Edmund who helps Frank with the shows causing some antagonism between the men.

It's a beautiful story evoking the time beautifully making it an easy read.

the scenes of the war are so real you can almost smell the fear. It reads as if it were real events. Telling the story of the locals struggling after terrible bombing raids and Vesuvious as a back-drop make this a powerful read.

Sadly though there are several sex scenes which are graphic in detail and not needed in any way, adding little if anything to the story. Why do authors do this?… (més)