To the River
Why would you risk your life and all that you love for a stranger?
Published on 28. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
440 pages
978-1-80514-248-5 (ISBN)
Description
Umbria 1943. Nazi troops are massacring whole villages in retaliation for help being given to even a single fugitive. Outside a pretty country town is a prison camp of six hundred British, Commonwealth and American soldiers seething with hatred for Italians.
When young widow Lucia does a deal with FitzGerald, all six hundred escape into the hills or make their way out of Nazi occupied Italy. FitzGerald himself moves from farm to farm until his contempt for Italians turns into admiration for the impoverished people who risk everything to succour a stranger. He sees in the women, children and old people left on the farms, a courage greater than that of soldiers. Instead of taking up arms again, he shepherds the villagers as they fly from extermination.
But can he, and his rescuer, escape To the River, the border between two armies?
When young widow Lucia does a deal with FitzGerald, all six hundred escape into the hills or make their way out of Nazi occupied Italy. FitzGerald himself moves from farm to farm until his contempt for Italians turns into admiration for the impoverished people who risk everything to succour a stranger. He sees in the women, children and old people left on the farms, a courage greater than that of soldiers. Instead of taking up arms again, he shepherds the villagers as they fly from extermination.
But can he, and his rescuer, escape To the River, the border between two armies?
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Market Harborough
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80514-248-5 (9781805142485)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Hugo de Burgh was Walt Disney Chair of Media and Communications at Schwarzman College of International Relations, Tsinghua University, until 2022 and now writes full-time. He has published books on investigative journalism, Chinese affairs and media. His next novel tells the stories of Chinese students in London as hostility between the Anglophone and Chinese worlds grows.