Our darkest night A novel of Italy and the Second World War

Though it is illegal for Jews to practice medicine, Antonina Mazin accompanies her aging father in the ghetto of Venice. But as Venice grows more dangerous, Dr. Mazin and his friend, Father Bernardi, arrange for Antonina to escape with a former seminary student, Nico Gerardi, by posing as his wife. She goes reluctantly, becoming Nina, a nursing student from Padua, on the long journey to Nico's hometown. His family was expecting him to work the farm; they were not expecting him to bring a wife. Nina has to adjust to farm life, and to keeping secrets from a family she grows to love. Eventually, the maniacal local SS officer uncovers the truth, which leads Nina on a wrenching journey to Birkenau and Terezin. Robson (The Gown, 2018) does not shy away from the horrors of the Holocaust but ends the story with an improbable miracle that will leave readers reaching for tissues. This homage to love, finding a family, and the triumph of good people over Nazis is a good choice for book groups looking for a new take on WWll fiction.

Robson (The Gown) shines with this stellar WWII story. In 1942 Venice, Antonina Mazin, a young Jewish woman, aspires to be a doctor like her father, despite crackdowns by Mussolini's government on the rights of Jews. As the political winds turn more ominous, Antonina's father arranges for her to go into hiding in a remote village, masquerading as Nina, the Catholic wife of local farmer and former seminary student Niccolò Gerardi. While their relationship at first is only for show, the two fall in love while working for the Resistance. But when a Nazi officer discovers Nina's true identity, their lives are placed in jeopardy. The brutal reality and atrocities of war are on full view with devastating clarity. Expert characterizations and perfect pacing are rounded out by lyrical prose ("She lay on her side, stricken, watching the last of the sun fade to nothing, and she waited for the stars to bloom"). This will break readers' hearts. (Jan.)

In 1943, with Germans soldiers occupying much of Italy, Italian Jewish Antonina Mazin must flee Venice. But instead of risking a dangerous mountain crossing, she agrees to pose as the wife of Nico Gerardi, who cut short his seminary studies to return home to run the family farm. Unfortunately, their arrangement does not entirely persuade either the neighbors or the local Nazi official. From the author of the internationally best-selling The Gown; with a 100,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing.