000			02562nam a2200289 a 4500
001			067205
005			20231009193425.0
008			130103s2005 nyub 000 1 eng
010			_a2004050942
020			_a9780375501845
050	0	0	_aPS3568.U76678 _bT48 2005
082	0	0	_aFIC RUS
100	1		_aRussell, Mary Doria _d, 1950-
245	1	2	_aA thread of grace _b: a novel _c/ Mary Doria Russell.
250			_a1st ed.
260			_aNew York _b: Random House _c, 2005.
300			_axii, 430 p. _b: maps _c; 25 cm.
520			_aBusy, noisy and heartfelt, this sprawling novel by Russell-a striking departure from her previous two acclaimed SF thrillers, The Sparrow and Children of God-chronicles the Italian resistance to the Germans during the last two years of WWII. Three cultures mingle uneasily in Porto Sant'Andrea on the Ligurian coast of northwest Italy-the Italian Jews of the village, headed by the chief rabbi Iacopo Soncini; the Italian Catholics, like Sant'Andrea's priest Don Osvaldo Tomitz, who befriend and shelter the Jews; and the occupying Germans invited by Mussolini's crumbling regime. In the last camp is the drunken, tubercular Nazi deserter, Doktor Schramm, a broken man who confesses to Don Osvaldo that while working in state hospitals and Auschwitz, he was responsible for murdering 91,867 people. Meanwhile, Jewish refugees in southern France, including Albert Blum and his teenage daughter, Claudette, are fleeing across the Alps to Italy, hoping to find sanctuary there. Russell pursues numerous narrative threads, including the Blums' perilous flight over the mountains; Italian Jew Renzo Leoni's personal coming to terms with his participation in the Dolo hospital bombing during the Abyssinian campaign in 1935; the dangerous frenzy of the Italian partisans; and the bloody-mindedness of German officers resolved to carry out Hitler's murderous racial policy despite mounting evidence of its futility. The action moves swiftly, with impressive authority, jostling dialogue, vibrant personalities and meticulous, unexpected historical detail. The intensity and intimacy of Russell's storytelling, her sharp character writing and fierce sense of humor bring fresh immediacy to this riveting WWII saga.
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _x--Underground movements _z--Fiction
650		4	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _x-Jews _x-Rescue
650		0	_aHolocaust, Jewish, 1939-1945 _x--Fiction
651			_aItaly _x-History
655		7	_aHistorical fiction
655		7	_aJewish fiction
655		7	_aWar stories
942			_cMO
999			_c270464 _d270464