Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Miracle at St. Anna (Movie Tie-in)

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 1,244 ratings · 228 reviews

The acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee, coming to theaters Sept. 28. For more information, click here. Four soldiers from the army's Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discov...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published September 2nd 2008 by Riverhead Trade (first published 2001)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,199)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jan 27, 2013 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: afrocentric, american-lit

I enjoyed this story about a troop of African-American soldiers fighting for the States in Italy. McBride is a very talented writer. I think he told the story very well; he captured the Italian mentality, especially towards superstition and how they viewed people different from themselves (in those days, anyway, the grotesqueness of war).

The "funny" thing about the African-American soldiers was that they were freer in Italy than they were in their own country. For me, that fact posed a few quest...more

8 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2008 alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historicalfiction

This took me a long time to get through, because it's a heavy plot. Four black American soldiers are lost in the mountains of Italy after a terrible battle, trying to figure out who among the Italian peasants and freedom fighters they can trust, and not trusting each other or their white commanders. They've also picked up a young Italian boy who's half crazy from the atrocities he's witnessed, and who becomes the center of their world. This is beautifully written, and although the male character...more

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 13, 2009 Tamela Quijas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Absolutely wonderful tale. Whether or not you are old enough to recall segregation in the military, or have family members that do, this book is a spellbinding read.

My son took me to see the movie and I had to read it afterwards. I wasn't disappointed.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 14, 2009 Rhonda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We read this in our church group, mostly because everyone got to suggest a book and three of the men are WWII veterans, God bless them. The man who suggested this book fought in this particular area and he heard it was an accurate depiction of the terrain.
One hears little about this part of te war where the germans fortified positions telling their soldiers to fight to the death. Having seen part of this terrain, it is amazing that anyone made it more than 100 yard without dying.
This story is ab...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 28, 2010 Empress5150 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2007 must have been the year of reading books by authors who had written other books that I much preferred to the current one I was reading! Case in point with “Miracle at Santa Anna”. Ok, it wasn’t stinko awful, but it in no way can compare with McBride’s perfectly wonderful (autobiographical) “The Color of Water”. “Miracle” is a tale of black soldiers fighting in Italy during WWII. They stumble across a young orphan Italian boy and a group of Italian villagers and the head of a very famous sta...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 10, 2010 Brian DiMattia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm torn on what to rate this book. I was sure it was a five most of the way through, but then had a major gripe with the ending. If ever there was a "4 1/2" star book it would be this.

A wonderful book that hooked me from the first chapter. The preview chapter was so intriguing that I didn't want to read the rest...I HAD to read the rest. And the rest didn't disappoint. The plot, four minority soldiers find an emotionally damaged boy behind German lines in WWII Italy and end up in a purgatory of...more I'm torn on what to rate this book. I was sure it was a five most of the way through, but then had a major gripe with the ending. If ever there was a "4 1/2" star book it would be this.

A wonderful book that hooked me from the first chapter. The preview chapter was so intriguing that I didn't want to read the rest...I HAD to read the rest. And the rest didn't disappoint. The plot, four minority soldiers find an emotionally damaged boy behind German lines in WWII Italy and end up in a purgatory of infighting, secrets, horror and abandonment, was beautifully crafted. It moved at just the right pace, never so fast that you lost track of detail in the rush, and never so slow that you felt bogged down by every last little bit of exposition.

And the structure was fascinating. It has the feel of a dual narrative novel, a structure that gets confusing if done poorly, but if done well has a flow to it, letting your mind relax from one narrative and process what's happened while you see someone else in a different situation. Here, the alternate stream wasn't a narrative train, but a collection of short narratives about related characters, segments of history, and expansion on the different cultures that were meeting.

The whole thing was brilliantly done. The chapter on the history of the statue head was what made me decide I needed to own this book. The chapter on Italy during and after the war was deeply moving and human. The seperate narrative about the officers in charge of the company was fascinating.

But there is one major flaw to this book. The ending. Not even the ending of the plot, because that was fine. The way the ending detailed "what happened" in the minds of each character. The story has five main characters, the four soldiers and the boy. It has four second level characters: A woman who helps the soldiers, her father, and two partisans. Of the main characters, only four have actual endings. Of the four secondary characters, only one or two have endings depending on your point of view.

When I say endings, I mean one final moment for the reader to see the character before they leave the narrative for a variety of reasons. Several characters find happiness, or meaning in their lives, or even redemption. But the rest of the ending seems slapped on, like McBride was pulling an all-nighter on a school project and around 3 AM said 'that's good enough.'

I could forgive even the clumsy handling of the secondary characters, but my favorite of the main characters seemed to be left nowhere. What happens with him is described, but he doesn't get the chance to express it himself, to sum anything up, or to leave the text on a note of completion. The others do, and it really bothered me! I was left thinking less of a book that I had absolutely loved up to that point, because a character that had been very important up until then seemed to be simply forgotten about by his author.

Still, on the whole the book was good enough that I'll stick with five stars. For now. You know, unless I change my mind which I'm bound to. Repeatedly!(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2012 Johnny D rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine you are on your way home, aching with hunger, when you see the most beautiful picture of a juicy hamburger on a billboard (if you're a vegetarian you can imagine a stalk of celery or something). You decide to stop by that pub and order that delicious looking burger (or celery stalk).

Oh, and when that burger arrives it is everything you imagined. It's big, it smells divine, it looks just like the advertisement, and it has all the ingredients that you love on your burger (if you're a veget...more

like · see review

Jan 02, 2011 Anne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book because I really enjoyed The Color of Water. I was mostly dissapointed by Miracle at St. Anna. I felt that although he was a good writer, his execution of the story was weak. He would create climaxes in the story that would anticipate this incredible outcome, and each time I was left very disappointed. I think the plot was a good one, but his overall ability to tell a story was weak. If McBride writes another autobiography, I will pick it up in a heartbeat because he is a good j...more

like · see review

Sep 03, 2012 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ll

"On December 12, 1944, Sam Train became invisible for the first time. He remembered it exactly.

He was standing on the bank of the Cinquale Canal, just north of Forte dei Marmi, in Italy. It was dawn. The order was to go. One hundred and twenty black soldiers from the 92nd Division bunched behind five tanks and watched them roll toward the water, then clumsily waded in behind them, rifles held high."

So starts James McBride's Miracle at St. Anna, a book that grabs you and never lets you go until t...more

like · see review

May 21, 2009 danielle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok, maybe I'm too jaded, but I was really thrown by the whole "magical Negro" theme in this book. (I mean, there's also a "magical Italian boy" theme. . .but still). I think McBride is half African American, but does that really complicate things? I'm not sure. In any case, linguistically speaking, I hated how the translated Italian did not have the syntax or flow of real Italian. That might sound nitpickily pretentious, but I love how in Julia Alvarez, even when her characters are written as sp...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 04, 2012 Jason Young marked it as to-read · review of another edition

The author had a few different purposes in the book Miracle at St. Anna. One of the author's purposes was to show the great affect that World War II had on the country of Italy. World War II destroyed homes, families, land, and people all over Italy and Europe. They were already suffering from ecenomic depression. The book also shows the cruelty of the German Nazi soldiers. In the book, Nazi's rob and kill many innocent people who opposed them all over Italy. On the other hand, the book shows t...more The author had a few different purposes in the book Miracle at St. Anna. One of the author's purposes was to show the great affect that World War II had on the country of Italy. World War II destroyed homes, families, land, and people all over Italy and Europe. They were already suffering from ecenomic depression. The book also shows the cruelty of the German Nazi soldiers. In the book, Nazi's rob and kill many innocent people who opposed them all over Italy. On the other hand, the book shows the great bravery expressed by the African American troops in the United States Army's Buffalo Soldiers during the war.
The main character in the book is a young American negro soldier named Sam Train. He helps rescue a lost Italian orphan boy that he found in a barn who was separated from his family during the war. This shows great bravery because Sam Train was fighting alongside other American white soldiers who treated him unfairly and he chose to take care of this poor Italian boy.
I believe the author of Miracle at St. Anna is trying to show the horrors of war, but he also shows how hard times create incredible heroes. In this book, Sam Train is a hero to the little Italian boy and for his country. In Miracle at St. Anna, we see how times were very different back then. The world was a much bigger place. For example, the little Italian boy had never seen an African American before. In fact, the boy thought that Sam was made of chocolate and he tried to taste Sam by licking him. Today, this would be very strange, but in those days, people had not been exposed to other races and parts of the world as much.
Miracle at St. Anna was written in third person form. It used a narrator to tell the story. I liked this method because there were so many characters and lots of detailed information for this book to be written any other way. Yes, I think it was effective because it made it easier for the reader to understand.
My opinion of this book is that it is a very good book. I like how it told an unheard story of World War II African American soldiers. The setting of the story was beautiful. I enjoyed reading about the quiet countryside of Italy. One thing I didn't like about the book was that it went into a lot of detail which made it hard to understand and it got off topic alot. It is unlike any other World War II book or nonfiction book that I have read.

(less)

like · see review

Jul 09, 2009 Debbie Petersen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: upsetting

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Major Spoiler Alert...

This book is very hard to rate. It is extremely well written and that alone should merit more stars than the number I gave. The storyline is brutal and disturbing and full of suffering and cruelty, just like war itself. I found it hard to follow all of the battle scenes and had to finish this for my book club, so I did something I would usually never do and borrowed the movie from the library. I thought this would give me the overview of the plot and I could go back and rea...more

like · see review

Feb 04, 2009 Debbie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Aug 28, 2012 Carol rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

8/12/12: added to my 'to read' list because I just finished his "Song Yet Sung" and loved it.

8/28/12: this is a lovely book about the Buffalo soldiers the USA sent to Italy in WWII. The shocking treatment of the black soldiers by their white officers, in many cases inferior to the blacks in intelligence, common sense and compassion, will confound you. That the black soldiers continued to do their jobs in impossible situations is hard to explain. the story starts with 4 black soldiers who became...more

like · see review

Jan 31, 2010 Brianna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Picked up this book because I tried Song Yet Song and was interested in the way of storytelling but couldn't quite get through it, so I wanted to try another by the same author.

Miracle at St Anna centers on four soldiers in Italy in WWII. The story was distressingly informative about the devastation of Italy, as well as the role blacks played in the war -- it took a wartorn foreign country to be treated as humans, yet they still returned to segregation and hatred in their barracks and waiting fo...more

like · see review

Jul 05, 2009 Monica rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Loved the way it was written, the story it told, the poetry that moved within the sentences.

Set in Italy, towards the end of World War II...the lives of four men are changed forever. The simplicity of the Chocolate Giant as he lets love take over, the avoidance techniques of Bishop as he hides from what he's really hiding from, the strength of Hector who just wants to do what's right, and the leadership supplied by Stamps, who just wants it all to end. Mix up these four men in...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 07, 2009 Sharla rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one where I wish there were half stars. I liked this book because it was about a part of WWII that I knew little about. I didn't even realize that there was a movie made of this book until later, I guess because I don't see many movies lately and because it was an R. But it is a pretty gritty war story after all, and there is plenty of language, graphic descriptions of the horrors of war, sexual innuendo etc. I guess the reason I liked it is that the characters grabbed me, the writing wa...more

like · see review

Nov 19, 2012 AJ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, novels

I wasn't sure if I would like this book, since the movie was generally panned (though I didn't see it). But, when I saw it sitting on a table at work with a "free" sign on it, I figured I would give it a read on my lunch hours. I never can turn down free books. I was torn between a three star and four star rating, I would like to give it three and a half, but am feeling generous today.

Anyway, I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. I'm not one who is really into war books or movies, but this...more

like · see review

Feb 24, 2009 Sherie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sherie by: Brooke

This is my second book by McBride and he continues to impress. The Buffalo Soldiers are so named by the American Indians, because their nappy hair reminded them of their beloved bison's mane. They have been around since the late l800's doing detail work that no white man would sully their hand with and had become a fixture in the American armed services for doing what white folks would not.
The story is about a detail of four men standed during a surge, where, without the support of their white...more

like · see review

Feb 11, 2010 Phuong rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another WWII book... I was hesitant to read another book about WWII. I was already emotionally drained after reading "The True Story of Hansel and Gretal."

My first James McBride book was "The Color of Water." I loved that book and was interested in how McBride did fiction. Not surprisingly, his flow is the same and he makes you sympathatic of all characters, even Bishop.

The first few pages caught my attention right away and it is a much easier read than "The True Story of Hansel and Gretal."

I w...more

like · see review

Jun 29, 2012 Joy Weese Moll rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The 92nd Infantry Division, composed of black soldiers and their white commanders, invaded Italy in 1944 encountering desperate entrenched German troops and a chaotic political landscape of even more desperate Italians who had witnessed atrocities, experienced starvation, and found it hard to imagine any sort of future for themselves or their children. In that environment, the gentle giant Sam Train rescued a small Italian boy. He raced to safety, pursued by three of his fellow soldiers. The fiv...more

like · see review

Jan 29, 2009 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a heartbreaking story for me to read because it is a novel based on the real experiences of the people and soldiers involved in the campaigns in Italy during World War II. It was strange to read about the war in Tuscany, since now Tuscany is associated with sunshine and fantastic vacations. The soldiers involved were all African Americans, so it was interesting to read about their experience in the war, how racism followed them even as they were following their nation's orders and how t...more

like · see review

Feb 03, 2012 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is a beautiful story...but the atrocities of war are so brutal...thinking about God and his children 'being mean' to each other is so heart wrenching, so hard to read, and yet the opposites need to be there, in the story, the good and the evil. Way too much language for my comfort.

I loved learning about the historical aspects of the war in Italy, about the Buffalo Soldiers who fought, basically against the Germans and their white commanders, finding dignity in loving their neighbor...and havi...more

like · see review

May 30, 2010 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting topic and easy to read. I wish it had been just a bit longer and maybe ended slightly differently. At a certain point, I realized there were only about 50 pages left and that wasn't enough to deal with what I thought was coming. I wasn't terribly impressed with how the events played out in the epilogue. I think the Train character was a bit too similar to the "Magical Negro" trope that occurs in books and movies...where the black character is kind of otherworldly and his main purpose...more

like · see review

Aug 19, 2012 Rhonda Lawrence rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, though I thought it was interesting, I felt a little like the story was about several different things, and I found it hard to discern which was the most important story to invest in. It wasn't just about the African American soldiers. There were the black soldiers, the Italians, the Partisan group and a child. I wish Train's character had been more divulged, his feelings and thoughts. The "miracle" of the story just wasn't there for me, either. And though it looked promising in places, su...more

like · see review

Oct 09, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wish I'd gotten out a map of Italy while I was reading this. I think I would have appreciated the geography better if I could look at a map. I never knew much detail about WWII, and certainly nothing about the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Division. McBride does a good job on the topic "how it feels to be black"--one of the characters reflects on the way the Italians perceive African Americans compared to the way he is perceived and treated at home and compared to the way the white Americans (and...more

like · see review

Dec 26, 2010 Mari Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A mesmerizing story of 4 Buffalo soldiers in WW2, stranded in a small Italian village in Tuscany. They are pinned down with an injured boy, a rare Italian artifact, and a town full of shell shocked villagers. One of the few cases where I actually think the movie is better than the book, the book does a good job of describing the story and the action. The movie however brings the stark reality of war and the beauty of the Italian countryside to life. A wonderful story all around but I would defin...more

like · see review

May 31, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reviews of this book were so wildly contradictory - and the movie reviews were similarly so - that I didn't know if this was worth the read. For me in the end, it was. It was honest in its portrayal of just how brutal war can be, not only to soldiers but to hundreds of innocent civilians. It was also honest in its portrayal of the second class citizenship held by African American soldiers even while fighting for their country in WWII. Was it uplifting? At times, yes. Was it sad? Yes. But all in...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 09, 2010 Matty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Prior to getting into this novel, I had heard mixed emotions about the movie (which I have never seen) based upon James McBride's "Miracle at St. Anna" and directed by Spike Lee. Yet, one thing I've learned is that the book is almost always better than the movie.

"Miracle at St. Anna" was never on my list of books to read, but a friend of mine had come for a visit and while she was here, she had finished this novel and decided to leave it for me (I'm not one to turn down a free book). In the end,...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 17, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The cover of this book didn't lie when it touted the story would be "Full of miracles of friendship, of salvation and survival." Though there wasn't as much survival, the stories of salvation and friendship certainly did ring true.

I loved McBride's writing style. The opening scenes, confusing though they were, grabbed my attention and threw me in to the story. Why did Hector snap? Who was the customer? Who was the well-dressed Italian man who read Hector's story and went tearing off down the str...more The cover of this book didn't lie when it touted the story would be "Full of miracles of friendship, of salvation and survival." Though there wasn't as much survival, the stories of salvation and friendship certainly did ring true.

I loved McBride's writing style. The opening scenes, confusing though they were, grabbed my attention and threw me in to the story. Why did Hector snap? Who was the customer? Who was the well-dressed Italian man who read Hector's story and went tearing off down the streets of Rome?

I appreciate the history that was seamlessly inserted into the book. The Italian countryside, though it was being ravaged by war, was still shown to be beautiful and somehow calming, the people welcoming and quietly passionate.

Angelo's story was a tiny bit confusing, but I think that added to the mystique surrounding him. Where he came from, how he happened to end up in Train's arms, and the things he refused to remember were brought to the fore slowly, in bits and pieces, and helped build anticipation for his memory returning.

The only thing that was a slight disappointment was the fact that there were so many characters that you weren't able to get a real good feel for all of them. The "main" characters were the most solid, of course, but it would have been nice to know more about Peppi, Renata and especially Driscoll. They each had their own demons to fight, their own strength to call on, and their own broken hearts, yet we didn't really get a chance to explore any of that territory.

However, despite that (and I'm sure I'm probably one of the only ones to see that as a negative), the story came together in the end. The questions from the beginning - the prologue that slowly starts to make sense, even as it creates new questions - are answered for the reader, and for Hector and the "Italian businessman". It was a nice, pat ending, which I don't usually like...but after everything they went through during the war, I think the story needed a nice, pat ending.(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 73 74 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Won this book	1	6	Oct 01, 2012 05:33pm

combine
Other Editions (23)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

43 users

War

15 users

Cultural > Italy

8 users

History > World War II

6 users

Novels

4 users

Book Club

4 users

Mystery

3 users

Literature

3 users

Contemporary

2 users

Literary Fiction

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About James McBride

James McBride is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. He is married with three children. He lives in...more

More about James McBride...

Books by James McBride

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

Family: Moments Intimacy Laughter Kinship

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Miracle at St. Anna

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Miracle at St. Anna

“The enemy was irony and truth and hypocrisy, that was the real enemy. That was the enemy that was killing him.” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Miracle at St. Anna
avg rating	preview: Miracle at St. Anna Goodreads rating: 3.64 (1244 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4913126-miracle-at-st-anna?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348027591l/4913126.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4913126-miracle-at-st-anna?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride[/url]

Miracle at St. Anna (Movie Tie-in)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website