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S'està carregant… Villa Triste (2011 original; edició 2013)de Lucretia Grindle (Autor)
Informació de l'obraThe Villa Triste de Lucretia Grindle (2011)
Which house? (168) S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. World War, 1939-1945 This is more ambitious than the run-of-the-mill crime fiction at £0.89, and worth much more in every sense. It takes the form of the diary of an Italian anti-fascist partisan interleaved with a contemporary whodunnit, the solution to the latter obviously relating closely to the events described in the former. I found both parts of the narrative equally engaging, for different reasons, and with different reservations: the diary entries, concerning events surrounding the deaths of a partisan unit in 1944 were affecting in their evocation of what must have been horrendous times. But the characterisation here was flat, causing a particular problem because so much of the novel turns on identities (real, imagined and stolen), more specifically names (married, maiden and assumed). With only a couple of exceptions, I was quite unable to remember who on earth was who (although, come to think of it, this may be entirely intentional on the part of the author). The contemporary detective novel is well enough done, although in these pages, while the smaller cast of characters is more easily distinguishable, they seem comparatively trivial; we get, too, little sense of contemporary Florence, or of any meaningful relationship between Italy and her past, except in the very specific cases of individual partisans, sixty years on. A minor cavil, perhaps. The end of the novel comes more as a satisfying resolution than surprising revelation, but is no less effective for that. I would heartily recommend this book to readers interested in a story of Italian resistance; it will be of less interest to avid thriller readers. A great story and a good read. The suspense lasts right to the end of the book. There are (I'm informed by an Italian speaker) a plethora of annoying errors in the Italian words, sentences and expressions sprinkled through the book, the most pervasive of which is the nickname of Isabella. In Italy the short form of Isabella is "Isa", "Issa" means "heave-ho" in a maritime sense, which strikes Italians as distinctly odd. But even that isn't enough to spoil the story. No other historical fiction novel has grabbed my attention like that of Lucretia Grindle's "Villa Triste." Grindle expertly intertwines contemporary mystery with historical fiction set in a location that many novels about World War II do not touch on as heavily. Set in Italy during the Nazi occupation, readers are told the gripping story of two sisters, one on the brink of marriage and both quickly forced to make decisions impacting the present day murder investigation of a local partisan hero. Grindle weaves the present day and the past in a way that continually captivated me, with an ending that left me thinking about the Cammaccio sisters, and the trials of so many others during that time, long after I turned the last page.
Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
Lucretia Grindle has explored Tuscany's dark, disturbing soul and delved into an equally foreboding chapter of its history to distil a complex, enthralling thriller. Unravelling a case as labyrinthine as the Florentine back streets is intrepid detective Alessandro Pallioti who has only one guide to lead him through the maze, Caterina's diary. With three bodies on his hands, including a fabled resistance leader, the insightful Pallioti is convinced the motives for the killings date back more than 65 years. The journal takes our policeman to the eponymous Villa Triste, loosely translated, "the sad house", a property with tragedy engrained in its fabric. Carefully crafted with an authentic and compelling dialogue, Grindle saves her best story-weaving to the thrilling denouement that creates a surprise as unexpected and delicious as the finest Florentine cuisine. Unusually for war fiction, this novel revolves almost entirely around women and their part in resisting the Nazi-Fascist alliance. Telling her story through the contrived method of a journal which reads, unfortunately, as if it has been written by a novelist some decades after events, Grindle counterpoints the war-time story – which for all its artifice is truly compelling – with a modern-day tale. While there are distinct flaws in this novel, foremost that Italy itself never comes alive in Grindle’s hands, and her heroines feel more American or British than Italian, The Villa Triste is nevertheless an engrossing and thoughtful thriller, plotted more tightly than Houdini’s knots, and emotionally powerful. Markedly more at ease in the contemporary chapters than in the past, one of Grindle’s distinguishing skills is characterisation and dialogue. And although for some the denouement may not come as a great surprise, this story overall is exhilarating. It is also, of course, profoundly sad – or triste, as they say in Florence. Pertany a aquestes sèries
When two sisters are forced to make impossible decisions while living under the brutal Nazi occupation of Italy, their actions set off a chain of events that ultimately impact a murder investigation sixty years later. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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