A Harvest of Secrets: A Novel
A Harvest of Secrets: A Novel book cover

A Harvest of Secrets: A Novel

Paperback – September 1, 2022

by
Price
$14.95
Format
Paperback
Pages
272
Publisher
Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1542034388
Dimensions
5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
Weight
9.6 ounces

Description

Review “A well-recommended read.” ― Historical Novels Review About the Author Roland Merullo is the bestselling author of twenty-five works of fiction and nonfiction, including From These Broken Streets ; Once Night Falls ; The Delight of Being Ordinary ; The Talk-Funny Girl , an Alex Award winner; Vatican Waltz , a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2013 pick; Breakfast with Buddha , an international bestseller; Lunch with Buddha , selected as one of the Best Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews ; Revere Beach Boulevard , a Boston Globe Top 100 Essential Books of New England pick; and Revere Beach Elegy , winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. Born in Boston and raised in Revere, Massachusetts, Roland earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Russian language and literature at Brown University. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he has also made his living as a carpenter, college professor, and cabdriver. Roland writes a weekly essay series called On the Plus Side and lives in the hills of western Massachusetts with his family. For more information, visit www.rolandmerullo.com.

Features & Highlights

  • From the bestselling author of
  • From These Broken Streets
  • comes a sweeping novel of love, resistance, and courage set against the backdrop of WWII Italy.
  • Italy, 1943. The seeds of terror planted by Hitler have brought Allied forces to Italian soil. Young lovers separated by war―one near a Tuscan hill town, the other a soldier on the Sicilian front―will meet any challenge to reunite.
  • Vittoria SanAntonio, the daughter of a prosperous vineyard owner, is caught in a web of family secrets. Defying her domineering father, she has fallen for humble vineyard keeper Carlo Conte. When Carlo is conscripted into Mussolini’s army, it sets a fire in Vittoria, and she joins the resistance. As the Nazi war machine encroaches, Vittoria is drawn into dangers as unknowable as those faced by the man she loves.
  • Badly wounded on the first day of the invasion, Carlo regains consciousness on a farm in Sicily. Nursed back to health by a kind family there, he embarks on an arduous journey north through his ravaged homeland. For Carlo and Vittoria, as wartime threats mount and their paths diverge, what lies ahead will test their courage as never before.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(3K)
★★★★
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(2.5K)
★★★
15%
(1.5K)
★★
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(711)
★
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Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Captivating novel

This is a wonderfully written book -- a page turner with excellent characterizations, flowing prose, and a compelling story - like all of the author's World War II novels set in Italy. It is as good and probably better than any best seller out there.
✓ Verified Purchase

Easy read

Very entertaining story. The characters are genuine and like able.
✓ Verified Purchase

Time well spent

The author consulted a number of experts to provide the verisimilitude necessary to drag the reader into the story. That said, one should read this book for the language as well as the characters.

Carlo is low man on the estate’s totem pole. Even at that he finds the princess at near the top of the pole to be irresistible. He and Victoria have a go at each other and whatever giveaway of their tryst appears, the owner of the estate, a Nazi sympathizer, prohibits his daughter from seeing Carlo again.

The Italian army, such as it is, needs recruits. Carlo is prime meat. He leaves the estate with an impending grape and wheat harvest to be indoctrinated in the ways of warfare.

Meantime, a priest recruits part of the estate’s worker cadre to carry out partisan activities, which sends them into spasms of guilt.

Carlo finds that warfare is horrible as he is blown up by an artillery round, losing consciousness and one eye.

Carlo has had enough of the misery of fighting so he departs the battle zone traveling throughout Sicily until he is able to hitch a ride to the mainland where he is constantly looking for German patrols.

Back at the estate, the Nazi captain who has his eye on Victoria comes to the estate to investigate the death in a car explosion of another Nazi sympathizer who happens to be Victoria’s godfather.

The old man at the top of the estate hands totem tries to tell the captain that they have nothing to do with the explosion. The captain does not believe him and shoots one of the two horses the workers use to haul grapes and wheat.

Unknown to the captain there are three deserters that are hiding in the barn.

After the captain leaves, Victoria takes the wagon with the deserters covered by canvas to the local nunnery. Her excuse is that she wants to make a short retreat.

Meanwhile, Carlo tramps the “leg” of the “boot” trying to make it back to the estate and Victoria.

To find out what happens next, read the book, you’ll find the time spent to be well worth it.

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