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The Light in the Ruins (Vintage Contemporaries) Paperback – April 22, 2014

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Chris Bohjalian (Author)
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4.1 out of 5 stars 682 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Series: Vintage Contemporaries
  • Paperback: 309 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (April 22, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307743926
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307743923
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (682 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPart Historical Novel/Part Murder Mystery
By Mary Lins TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on June 8, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I love Chris Bohjalian best when he is writing historical fiction (i.e., "Skeletons at the Feast", "Sandcastle Girls"); his new novel is part historical fiction part murder mystery called, "The Light in the Ruins" and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The setting is Tuscany which afforded him a lush and vivid palette upon which to paint his story. The time is WWII and ten years after.

Set in two time-frames, the story revolves around the Rosatis family. In 1943-44, Italy is being run by the Nazis and the Fascists, partisans live in the hills and attempt as much damage to both as possible. The Rosatis family has a villa in the countryside where years before an Etruscan tomb was unearthed. The Nazis have been plundering Italian art and artifacts bringing their unwanted attention to the Rosatis. Our protagonist Serafina Bettini, is a member of a band of partisans.

In 1955 the story becomes a murder mystery when remaining members of the Rosatis family are murdered in a specifically grizzly fashion. Serafina is now a police detective in Florence. She has been physically and psychologically damaged by her partisan past. Bohjalian does a terrific job of bringing us into her world where she is something of a freak being a physically deformed former killer, a woman detective, and single at 30 in 1955; nothing normal about any of that!

For me, a good historical novel sends me happily researching to find out more about the time and the setting. "The Light in the Ruins" sent me off to explore Etruscan art, Chimera, the Ahnenerbe, and the Italian resistance movement. I've had the fortune to have visited Florence, Rome, the Uffizi, and even little Fiesole, so I reveled in Bohjalian's descriptions of these places and my memories of them.

I would like to echo Chris Bohjalian's own recommendation in his "Acknowledgements" and urge readers interested in Italy during WWII to also read Mary Doria Russell's excellent novel, "A Thread of Grace".
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4.0 out of 5 starsChimera, who breathed raging fire
By Maine Colonial TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on May 19, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Two time periods alternate chapters in this story: 1943/44 and 1955. To say that Italy was in flux in 1943/44 would be an understatement. The war was turning against the Axis, and it was clear Italy would become a battleground. Germany, ostensibly Italy's ally, tore off the disguise of friend and became an occupier. Former enthusiastic supporters of the Fascist Blackshirts were hedging their bets. Anti-fascist partisans prowled the hills, sabotaging the German war effort. Ordinary Italians just tried to weather the storm.

For the noble Rosati family, living in the Villa Chimera in the Tuscan hill country near Florence, the harsh reality of war could still almost be ignored. Cristina, 18 years old, took daily rides on her beloved horse, went swimming in the pool with her young niece and nephew, and shared meals and wine with her sister-in-law and her parents. Her two brothers were in the army, but Vittore was nearby, in Florence, and Marco in Sicily. Maybe the war would be over soon and they could all be together once again.

But the turmoil of Italy, as the war drew to its cataclysmic end, plays out in microcosm at the Villa Chimera. There are angry murmurs in the village, and even among some family members, about Antonio Rosati's having Germans as guests at the Villa Chimera. Now, one of those German guests and his own daughter Cristina seem to be falling in love. As the fighting between the Germans and the Allies and partisans intensifies, the Tuscan hills become a battleground and the Villa Chimera transforms from a haven to a pawn of war.

Ten years after the war's end, Serafina Bettini is one of very few female police officers in Italy, and definitely the only homicide detective.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsEthnic Destruction and Fortitude in an Enthralling Novel
By Mr. August VINE VOICE on May 27, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Chris Bohjalian transports us over a 12 year time period moving us from 1943 and 1955 - it is a synchronization that compels the reader to go on a journey with the author's subject and characters. Historically, it is carefully written portraying the atrocities of WWII reverberating in the bucolic ancient villa of the Rosati family.

The author astonishes the reader immediately with a grotesque murder of a beautiful woman in 1955. Her heart is cut out of her body and placed on a dressing table in her squalid apartment in Florence, Italy. The murderer addresses the reader in first person and we are immediately caught up in extreme act of violence and hatred. And whom did he kill? Not a Nazi or a Mussolini supporter, but a young widow, Francesca Rosati, in her 30's who lost her Italian husband and two children in 1943.

The story behind this act brings to light the dichotomy between the ardent Nazis, with little or no education of artifacts and the serene, elegant Rosati villa with its symbols and tombs. Believing that their family would be safe, the Rosatis, of noble lineage, carry on their usual idyllic life far removed from the European War. This sanctuary is abandoned when two soldiers, one German and one Italian descend on the villa asking to see the Etruscan burial site and later demanding hospitality.

The author also depicts Cristina Rosati, the youngest daughter, as a profound character whose experiences and actions during 1943 impacts the genius of the plot. Another beautiful Italian, Serafina Bettini, is an investigator for the Florence police and is assigned to the horrific murder of Francesca. Serrafina endures her own emotional and physical scars as she unfolds the Rosati cold-blooded murders.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsVery good.

Our county wide common read. Very good.

Published 10 days ago by Richard
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Not the most exciting book I've ever read, but it's worth reading.

Published 11 days ago by Pamela Fargo
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great mystery with lots of history....a great combination!

Published 11 days ago by joyce wetlesen
4.0 out of 5 starsWW 11 from a different viewpoint.

Palm Beach County choice this book as the book of the year for readers. My book club will discuss it in May and I'm sure we'll have a great discussion.

Published 11 days ago by Edythe Strater
2.0 out of 5 starsStupid ending.

Once it got going it was over. Stupid ending.

Published 14 days ago by barbara aho
2.0 out of 5 starsNot a good choice

And I liked Close Your Eyes Hold Hands, but this book was not only gruesome it was confusing. It most certainly wasn't a good selection to pick for Read together Palm Beach. Read more

Published 14 days ago by Kay H. Duke
5.0 out of 5 starsMystery with historical background.

A stunning story of intrigue wrapped up in a war and recovery context. Well worth the read. A learning experience.

Published 16 days ago by tom
4.0 out of 5 starsPresented a good sense of lives and people in the last days ...

Enjoyable and captivating read. Presented a good sense of lives and people in the last days of Italy's role as an Axis member.

Published 27 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsHad me on the edge of my seat!

Suspenseful, I could not figure out the killer until almost the time of the reveal. This is one of my favorite times in history but have never read a book set in Italy before. Read more

Published 28 days ago by CarolePSL
5.0 out of 5 starsCAV

Very good read!!

Published 29 days ago by Connie A. Vassalotti

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