Customer Reviews

A Thread of Grace

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've read Mary Doria Russells other books, The Sparrow and Children of God and enjoyed both. I was a bit skeptical when I read the jacket material on Thread of Grace. Well, I should have known better. Thread of Grace is a tremendously well written and well researched novel. You will remember reading this book far into the future.

Thread of Grace is well written but very busy with crossing storylines. You may indeed need a list to keep things straight. Ms Russell pays great attention to detail in both her description of the physical location of the story (NW Italy) and in the characters she includes in the story. It is this detail that may overwhelm the casual reader.

The premise of the story, that there is a safe haven in Italy for Jews as they try to hide from their ultimate slaughter by the Nazi's is a compelling one. And it is true. The characters, a Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic Priest, the Italians of the region, and the Germans (collectively) face the moral and ethical dilemma all humans face in war. Russell does an excellect job dealing with the whole war/morality issue without preaching one way or the other.

Truly a worthwhile book. Get it and read it. I suspect we'll hear from Russell again.

I'm a Jew from a family so assimilated that I never set foot in a synagogue until I was almost 40. Yet it is part of my identity in a way that has nothing to do with religious observance, and throughout my life it has struck me with particular force when confronting the Holocaust --- reading Anne Frank's diary; seeing the movie Judgment at Nuremberg; weeping at Yad Vashem, the museum and memorial in Jerusalem. Being Jewish makes me feel proud, different, and vulnerable all at the same time.

A THREAD OF GRACE is part of that tragic narrative, but a more obscure one. Set in the ports and valleys of northwestern Italy (Aosta, Piemonte, Liguria) during the last two years of World War II, it tells the story of Jews, 43,000 of them --- both native-born Italians (of which there were many; the Jewish community in Rome is the oldest in Europe) and refugees from eastern Europe --- whose lives were saved by ordinary citizens. Russell, who calls herself "a Jew by choice and an Italian by heritage" (she is a convert, though she doesn't give details), seems the ideal writer to bring this piece of history to life, and she does it beautifully in an absorbing, generously proportioned novel.

This is the kind of book you need to read with a cheat sheet because there are so many personalities and interwoven story lines (Russell considerately provides a cast of characters; I could have used some maps, too). There are the Italian Jews, particularly the chief rabbi, Iacopo Soncini, and his wife, Mirella; and Renzo Leoni, a hardened former pilot who has as many identities as he has scars, and his mother, Lidia. There are the Italian Catholics: priests, nuns, and ordinary farmers and peasants who help shield the Jews --- and a big, innocent Calabrian infantryman who marries one. There is the Jewish refugee contingent, especially a Belgian teenager named Claudette Blum --- families who, as the story opens in 1943, are making their way across the Maritime Alps from southeastern France to Italy, which has just surrendered to the Allies. Unfortunately, Italy only seems safer: Mussolini's ouster sets up two years of bitter fighting among Germans, Allies, and partisans. A British Special Ops signalman parachutes in to gather information on the ground. Nazi officers try vainly but brutally to stabilize the area for Hitler. And a renegade German doctor, Werner Schramm, who presided over the vilest concentration camp experiments, is slowly dying of guilt, drink, and tuberculosis.

The book is, I admit, a bit heavy on "types" familiar from World War II movies: the selfless religious, the noble peasant, the apparent cynic who is a secret hero, and so forth. Indeed, there is an old-fashioned flavor to the whole novel --- the way Italian or German or Hebrew words are thrown in to indicate which language is being spoken; the stately pace; the headings that tell you precisely where and when the action is taking place. A THREAD OF GRACE doesn't reinvent the war novel as THE ENGLISH PATIENT did, with its spare language and mysterious shifts between myth and reality, past and present. But the author's emotional commitment to her characters is such that they soon grow on you, transcending cliché and laying claim to your heart.

Russell was originally a paleoanthropologist --- a scientist who studies human fossils --- and the training shows in her meticulous portrait of the region and its people. Although her previous books, THE SPARROW and its sequel, CHILDREN OF GOD, are science fiction, the methodology was similar: She invented an entire alien culture, building it up in brilliant, believable detail. (These earlier works, by the way, are fascinating, suspenseful, and altogether wonderful; grab them even if you don't ordinarily like the genre). There is a scientist's mind at work here as well as a novelist's imagination.

There is also a challenging ethical complexity to A THREAD OF GRACE. Russell does not preach or sentimentalize (which is easy to do in the face of the Italians' courage and self-sacrifice), and she doesn't glorify war; rather, she underscores its moral ambiguities. Werner Schramm, for example, is a walking, talking human monster, but he began as an idealist. Renzo Leoni is guilty of killing civilians, too, though on a lesser scale: In 1935, during the Italian-Abyssinian war, his squadron famously bombed a civilian hospital, and he is tortured by the memory. When local partisans show no mercy to captured Nazi officers, Renzo knows the massacre is wrong, but unstoppable. "I've sworn off ethics," he says afterward. "What's the point?" A THREAD OF GRACE, like THE SPARROW and CHILDREN OF GOD, is powerfully (though not didactically) imbued with a plea for cultural and religious understanding --- to respect what is radically different in other societies and faiths, while embracing what we have in common.

The evocative title comes from a remark by Rabbi Soncini at the book's end. "There's a saying in Hebrew," he says. " 'No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace.' " Mary Doria Russell's novel is a bit like a great textile --- rich and broad and intricately figured --- and in its design there is a glint of something like hope. These days, we could use it.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

Unlike Ms. Russell's previous works, "Thread of Grace" takes place in the past, not the future. Incredibly well-researched, it begins with Italy's armistice with the Allies, which is not good news for the Jewish people living in Italian-occupied territories. Accompanied by retreating Italians, they flee for Italy, only to discover, soon after, that the Germans have mostly taken control of Italy, too.

Italian Jews and foreign refugees must all go into hiding, many assisted by Italian Catholics, and a few Italian Jews who hide in plain sight. We also meet many of the German officers who control the small, fictionalized area of Italy in which the story takes place.

Just like "The Sparrow" and "Children of God", however, Ms. Russell's characters are wonderfully crafted, and the story is told in a remarkably beautiful manner. Faith, philosophy, humor, warmth, despair, and humanity are all wrapped up in one moving, poignant package.

By the fall of 1943, European Jews not in death camps or murdered seek sanctuaries in places like Italy's Piedmont Province though this area as a refugee haven remains questionable. The small village of Porto Sant'Andrea is home for Italian Jews led by Rabbi Soncini, Italian Catholics led by Father Tomitz, and the occupying German army represented by Doktor Schramm. Into this mix come non-Italian Jews especially from occupied France.

The three prime groups in the village have a tentative peaceful co-existence, but the influx of newcomers places that in jeopardy. The Italian Jews want to welcome their mostly religious kin with open arms. Father Tomitz sets the tone for his followers by providing shelter for the Jews. While Doktor Shramm hides with drink from his murdering almost 100,000 people of which he can account for seemingly everyone, the German leaders blindly follow orders to carry out the Final Solution. Into this volatile situation come the allies.

A THREAD OF GRACE is a fabulous complex historical tale (not sci fi as Mary Doria Russell's' two previous works are) that brings alive a dark era through seemingly real people. The story line is fast-paced with multiple subplots that add to the depth and the feel of 1943 Italy. With plenty of tidbits and multifaceted perspectives, the amazing part remains the ensemble cast regardless of national origin or religion which all seem so genuine; for instance the plight of a French Jew with his daughter struggling to cross the Alps to Italy is breathtaking. World War II readers will want to read this slice of an odious era where lights of courageous kindness existed.

Harriet Klausner

This novel tells the intertwining stories of European Jews, Italian Catholics, and a German army doctor who, in the last two years of WWII, choose life in the face of seemingly unconquerable death. It is by turn funny, heart-wrenching, sickening, and uplifting. Russell masters character development like no other author, so that I felt as if I personally knew each person introduced. If you liked Russell's science fiction novels, which are essentially stories of human beings and their faiths rather than space ships and aliens, you will find a similar spirit in this historical tale.

I also believe this book could be an excellent novel for a high school history, religion, or English class, despite some foul language (perfectly appropriate for the context) and violence. It brings home the atrocities of the German Final Solution much more directly than a dry history text book, inspires diligence in keeping similar things from happening again, and encourages respect and love across religious/cultural/racial divides.

I listened to the audio version and found the reader excellent and engaging.

The novel, A Thread of Grace, is an attempt to recreat a time period and characters who seem somewhat foreign in their behaviors and attitude and especially their lives. It is long past time for this story to be told, before the people and events are forgotten.
At first, the large cast of characters, many with more than one name, made for difficult reading. Once I got through this, the novel grabbed my interest and I read in in one day. I alternated from quiet moments of philosophical debate (What would I do in this situation?) to times of intense sadness at what mankind is capable of rationalizing as for the common good.
All in all, this novel is a must, and I highly recommend it.
Dianne Shames

Until I read A Thread of Grace, I might have chosen The Sparrow as my all-time favorite book of any genre. (When describing The Sparrow, I tell people it's about "Jesuits in space.")

But A Thread of Grace has all the fine character development and engrossing storyline of her previous books, plus it is grounded in a very real, accurately portrayed, place and time.

My uncle, a Polish Jew who spent part of his childhood in a concentration camp, and then traveled in Italy shortly after the end of the war, says that she really captures the difference in the way Italians treated the Jews. He recounted several incidents from his own and relatives experiences that could have come right from the pages of the book.

Even if were not as accurate and as carefully researched as it is, this would be an incredible novel in its own right! If I were dictator of the world, I'd make everyone read it.

I received A Thread of Grace as a gift, and am so glad it came my way. This is a beautiful story, based upon real people and actual events, beautifully told. Learning how hundreds of Italian citizens, ordinary people, survived the horrors of war and Nazi brutality, and selflessly extended the hand of friendship to those whom they perceived as even more persecuted, was an inspirational experience. Ms Russell's narration is flowing and compelling, and she succeeds in finding and illuminating the humanity in all her characters, including those once guilty of atrocity. There is so much courage in this world that goes unnoticed and unsung. This is a story worth telling.

Absolutely breathtaking....Characters that will haunt you long after the last page of the book.
Set in World War II Northern Italy, Mary Russell follows the lives of several Jewish families escaping the wrath of Nazi Germany only to find that the arms of Germany reach far into the boarders of Italy. Share their triumphs and tradgedy as Mary Russell weaves a Thread of Grace!

This book is best described as an historical account that brings the reader to World War II in Northwestern Italy. Through a variety of political perspectives, the author was able to portray an array of characters that brought into focus the goodness and ills of humanity with something akin to gentleness and 'grace'. I was reminded of the book My English Patient (M. Ondaatje), which only hinted at much of what becomes starkly real in wartime Italy through the telling of this story.
Russell provides her readers with a numbing sense of the futility of war and its enormous tolls, in her comments at the end of the book. It gives nothing of the story away to share her statement, "The last survivors (of this war) are dying now. Their children and grandchildren are the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy that the dry bones shall live again, but the poison still seeps down, contaminating generations. So much evil. So much destruction." She was able to depict this very image through the story she so carefully and fully brings it to life. She mentions Hitler infrequently and then only with an eerie and unearthly eloquence.
The book is hauntingly felt and viscerally experienced through her characters. It is one that will linger on as a whisper in your mind. It will likely sneak up on you in the middle of your day, connecting you to something deeper. It's well worth your time.