Blog Tour: The Girl Who Escaped by Angela Petch

 

The Girl Who Escaped: Utterly heartbreaking and emotional WW2 historical fiction by Angela Petch

 

Italy, 1940. The girl sobs and rages as her father tells her the terrible news. “Italy is entering the war alongside Germany. Jews are to be arrested and sent to camps. We have to be ready.”

As fascists march across the cobbled piazzas and past the towered buildings of her beloved home city, twenty-year-old Devora’s worst fears come true. Along with her Jewish parents and twin little brothers they are torn away from everything they love and sent to an internment camp huddled in the mountains. Her father promises this war will not last long…

When they are offered a miraculous chance of escape by her childhood friend Luigi, who risks everything to smuggle vital information into the camp, the family clambers under barbed wire and races for the border. But Devora is forced to make a devastating choice between saving a stranger’s life and joining her parents. As shots fire in the moonless night, the family is separated.

Haunted by the question of whether they are dead or alive, all Devora can do for their future is throw herself into helping Luigi in the Italian resistenza in the fight for liberty. But posing as a maid for a German commander to gather secret intelligence, Devora is sure she sees her friend one night, in a Nazi uniform…

Is Devora in more danger than ever? And will her family ever be reunited – or will the war tear them apart?

An absolutely devastating but ultimately uplifting historical novel about how love and hope can get us through the darkest times. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Rhys Bowen and Soraya M. Lane.

 

Buy link: https://geni.us/B0BYC1V9NHsocial

Devora is the heroine of this novel.  Born in Italy to Jewish parents who fled Germany and the horrors of persecution during WW1, she is happily living in Urbino, studying with the ambition to become a doctor, with a group of friends and a teenage crush on the local heart-throb.  However, the rise of the fascists and invasion by the Nazis threaten her future and the safety of her parent and twin brothers.  Devora must discover new strengths and resources within herself if she is to have the opportunity to grow up and realise her dreams, and she also needs to determine who her true friends are.  A spirited and rebellious girl, she must grow up quickly.

I enjoyed getting to know Devora and her journey to adulthood against the background of the War in a setting I was somewhat unfamiliar with: the Italian Resistance and the risks taken in outwitting the enemy as part of the fight for survival.  Urbino is a beautiful, hill-top walled city, a world heritage centre in the Marche region of the Appennines which played a significant part in the Renaissance and was the birthplace of the artist Raphael.  It looks absolutely beautiful and luckily it was not bombed during the war and remained relatively unscathed.  I recommend a quick search to discover more about this beautiful place, but I digress...

This is a moving story of bravery and collaboration against a common enemy, with a satisfying ending.

It is a good read, too. Thanks to Bookouture for the opportunity to enjoy this book.