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Last Train From Liguria
From the bestselling Irish novelist comes a sweeping historical novel, a tale of consequences that spans from the 1930s to the 1990s. "Last Train from Liguria" takes us on a journey from claustrophobic Dublin and the tense formality of London, to the heat and bustle of the Italian Riviera. Bella lives a cosseted life with her father in London. So when he announces that he...more
392 pages
Published
(first published January 1st 2010)
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"Last Train from Liguria" is part novel, part memoir, by a bestselling Irish novelist. Set between the 1930s and the 1990s It takes the reader on a journey from Dublin and the conventional London, to the heat and liveliness of the pre-war Italian Riviera. The female protagonist, Bella Stuart, leaves London, under heavy persuasion by her father, to become a tutor in Italy. The young boy she goes to tutor is the son of a Jewish heiress and an elderly Italian aristocrat. During her stay Bella fall...more
The principle protagonist of this novel is the daughter of an Irish surgeon practicing in London in the 1930’s. She is hired as nanny to the son of a wealthy Italian couple where she meets the boy’s reclusive Irish music teacher. We know things about him that she doesn’t because the book opens with an episode from his past. There are other changes of point of view and location as the book progresses, with a disreputably louche teacher in 1990s Dublin. The connection between these two is revealed...more
This novel is currently available for just 99p on kindle - quite a bargin. I must say I enjoyed it immensely. Well written with a lightish touch, I was hooked from page 1.
Christine Dwyer Hickey's characters are realistic and flawed, Edward haunted by a dark past, secretive, an occasional drinker, Bella a thirty something spinster with an eating disorder. Young Alec the child Bella cares for and comes to love, is an unusual boy, probably what today we may recognise as having Asbergers syndrome. F...more
Christine Dwyer Hickey's characters are realistic and flawed, Edward haunted by a dark past, secretive, an occasional drinker, Bella a thirty something spinster with an eating disorder. Young Alec the child Bella cares for and comes to love, is an unusual boy, probably what today we may recognise as having Asbergers syndrome. F...more
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I was captivated by this sad, sweet story of a group of ordinary people (imperfect, conflicted, and brave) who come together by chance or circumstance to form a close, familial bond in pre-war, fascist Italy. Stories that come out of wartime in any era or generation do not often have happy endings, nor do the protagonists always have the luxury of knowing the fate of friends and loved ones. This novel is no exception; nevertheless, the moving depiction of how these characters came to care for on...more
It is the mid-1930s and Bella�s father sends her to Mussolini�s Italy to become a nanny to a young boy. Among growing anti-Semitism and political uncertainty, Bella grows to love the boy and his Jewish family, but is forced to flee as the threat of war grows ever stronger and life becomes increasingly difficult for Italy�s Jewish population. Insert extreme peril here![return][return]The book was mostly written from Bella�s perspective, with brief interludes from Edward at the beginning, and then...more
This is the title I have chosen for my first book to read for the Italy in Books Reading Challenge, where over the year, month by month I intend to read a book fiction or non-fiction set in Italy, with a total of twelve in all. They will probably not be the obvious choices that come to mind as because of my love for the country I have already read a considerable number of books set here over the years.
I have never read anything by this author before so I have no comparisons to make with previous...more
I have never read anything by this author before so I have no comparisons to make with previous...more
This is an extremely well crafted book; you can relax in the knowledge that Christine Dwyer Hickey will not let you down. A proper, confident novel that moves backwards and forwards in time and space and makes sure that you believe in where you are at any time – 1995 Dublin, Genoa 1933, Bordhigera 1938, Dublin 1924. But of course it also prods you with increasing unease as an Irish governess of a little Jewish boy is enfolded into an Italy in which Fascism is moving into the ascendency. Dublin m...more
I enjoyed this book. The gradual weaving together of separate threads till the story was told kept my attention. The writing is beautiful, I especially loved the descriptions of Bella arriving in a strange, hot country, and being overwhelmed by the colours, tastes and surroundings of Italy.
The characters are all flawed in various ways, and their behaviour and relationships are described in convincing detail, so that I came to care about them and what happened to them. However, the book focuses m...more
The characters are all flawed in various ways, and their behaviour and relationships are described in convincing detail, so that I came to care about them and what happened to them. However, the book focuses m...more
I made an exception to my WWII/Holocaust sabbatical, since this was sort of for a bookclub and it was really the lead up to WWII in Italy. There is the main story in the 1920s-1938, and then there is a modern story set in 1995. I thought the modern story was completely unnecessary and detracted from the book since it just seemed gimmicky, but the main story was fairly evocative of 1930s Italy and Europe as the war approached (as far as I know). And that part of the story was original enough, eve...more
Single English woman goes to Italy to nanny for a wealthy young boy in a vacation resort on the coast. The boy's elderly father dies and the young mother remarries but is rarely ever around. As the nanny and the boy's piano teacher with a tainted past try to raise the boy while the mother is away, the German Nazi influence is heating up in Italy. While the changes in Germany had been gradual, the racism and abuse towards Jews in Italy are occurring at a frightening rate. Since the mother of the...more
I started this with the expectation of a "good read." The premiss seemed intriguing: a young woman goes to Italy in 1933 to be a governess/teacher to a young boy whose mother we learn well into the story is Jewish. WWII rumbles into the consciousness of the characters who must decide what needs to be done... There's a bit of time jumping, from 1933 to 1970s, creating a kind of mystery.
What finally disappointed me is that we don't get into the hearts and minds of the main characters. This happen...more
What finally disappointed me is that we don't get into the hearts and minds of the main characters. This happen...more
A great read, I really enjoyed this and finished it in a span of a week. Three stories woven together, the main protagonist is an Irish woman going to Liguria before the start of world war II to teach a wealthy Italian's son... the story gets more complicated when you find out the Signora is Jewish and as the war gets closer, you can see how the political and social climate of Italy starts to change. Especially interesting to me because I am very curious how Italy was during this period .. chris...more
I enjoyed this one - I think. The characters are singularly unlikeable - Edward the Irish alcoholic with a dark secret, Bella the buttoned-up governess, Alessandro with his problems - but the book really works. These three misfits support each other against the backdrop of the rise of Italian fascism and the onset of war, and the scene setting really is spectacularly beautiful and vivid. It's a genuinely strong narrative too, with an interesting modern thread where a grand daughter tries to make...more
I was surprised to find that this book had three storylines running through it, as only one appears in the synopsis. The first (and probably main) story is the story of Bella. A spinster essentially (considering her age and the time she was living in) who is sent to Italy in the reign of Mussolini by her father to care for a young boy- Alec.
The second story, which takes place in modern times, is that of a woman who watches as her Grandmother slowly dies in front of her eyes and finds out that de...more
The second story, which takes place in modern times, is that of a woman who watches as her Grandmother slowly dies in front of her eyes and finds out that de...more
Sep 28, 2011
BoekenTrol
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
bedazzle
Recommended to BoekenTrol by:
iwanttobeinital
I found this a nice book.
There's a couple of reasons why it is not a WOW, like I expected it to be.
First of all I was a bit disappointed by the story itself. It was quite slow. In iteslef, there's nothing wrong with that, but only when the book / the story got to an end the pace went up for a while. At least I could feel the tension that took hold of the main characters.
Then I missed the story of Bella now. I know thather granddaughter takes over her role (more or less), but I still think it is...more
There's a couple of reasons why it is not a WOW, like I expected it to be.
First of all I was a bit disappointed by the story itself. It was quite slow. In iteslef, there's nothing wrong with that, but only when the book / the story got to an end the pace went up for a while. At least I could feel the tension that took hold of the main characters.
Then I missed the story of Bella now. I know thather granddaughter takes over her role (more or less), but I still think it is...more
When Bella set sailed for Sicily, less she knew that her decision had actually sealed her fate forever. This is the story of determination of a girl who travelled far away from her home just to build a new life, totally different from the life that she had previously.
The way it was told, promised us that not all war-stories ended with happy ending. It is sad to realized that Bella died alone, far away from her beloved place and without peoples she loved most, perhaps more than she loved her fat...more
The way it was told, promised us that not all war-stories ended with happy ending. It is sad to realized that Bella died alone, far away from her beloved place and without peoples she loved most, perhaps more than she loved her fat...more
This falls into the “not particularly outstanding, but a good read, nonetheless” category -- mainly because of the setting and time period (Dublin, London, and Italy before and during WWII). I wasn’t particularly drawn to either of the characters, though, because they seemed so hard to get close to: Bella, a middle aged, mousey woman whose overbearing father arranges for her to take a job as a governess in Italy; Edward, the little boy’s enigmatic piano teacher who’s ended up in Italy to escape...more
I saw this reviewed on a friend's blog, so when it popped up on my Kindle with a sale price, the name rang a bell and I bought it. I wasn't sure what to expect, really, but I did enjoy the book. It was less plot-driven than my usual reading matter; the titular train journey doesn't even get going until the last quarter of the book. I found the style a little choppy, but I loved all the evocative descriptions of Italy, and the slowly developing tension of the pre-war society. Definitely worth a r...more
It took me awhile to get into the story. However, once I made it past the first few chapters I really started to enjoy it. At the end of the book I felt like I still had questions about the characters which bothered me a bit. I never fully liked Bella, she seemed a little whiney to me. When the Nazi's and Fascist's started to take over Italy and they had to evacuate, I couldn't put the book down. I had to find out what happened! I would recommend this book.
Really enjoyed this well crafted novel. The horrors of the gathering storm in Europe in the 1930's are the background to the story which is centred on Italy and the frantic race to escape from the rising tide of fascism. The stories of the central characters were repeated by millions of people as they scrambled to escape from the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany & the equally abhorrent regime in Russia. A story of courage, survival and love.
I would say this is a good book rather than a great book. I think it has a brilliant opening but then it's not fully developed. It is well written and parts can only be described as lyrical but if fails for me because I felt no real involvement with any of the characters. I guess you could say it mirrors life insofar as sometimes it's exciting and sometimes it's very dull. I don't necessarily look for a neat conclusion but in my opinion there are too many loose ends. I read it because it was a b...more
Nice read interesting story a little to descriptive at times sort of wondering off the plot, but its a lovely story of maternal love set in Italy just before the break out of WW2. Likeable characters in the book and some it took a while to get to know, a slight twist in the end kept it interesting. I would recommend it to the ladies not sure the Guys would appreciate the slow pace of the book.
Story of a spinster who goes to Italy to raise the son of a beautiful Jewess heiress and is caught up in the Fascism and dangers to Jews. She escapes to England and brings up the child. It is beautifully written and the switching back and forth between generations, altho I don't particularly like the technique, does build suspense in the telling of the story.
This did not have a promising start. A young man in Dublin murders his sister in the family's pub & flees the country. Years later, we meet a woman in her 30s who takes a job as a teacher to a little boy in Italy. It's the 1930s & anti-Semitism rears its ugly head in Europe. A wild scheme develops to convey Italian Jews to safety. This is more of a 3 and a 1/2.
The opening chapter sold this book to me, it set off a lively pace and whilst being very descriptive in parts,with a strong sense of imagery, the rest of the book labours and never quite reaches the mark.Set in Italy in the years before fascism takes hold, it tells the story of Bella, Edward and Alesso. The story unfolds very gradually, my main criticism is that the story is a bit too slow in places.
I spotted this book on a cross channel ferry a year or more ago and decided to keep it in the back of my mind for future reading. I'm glad I got round to it in the end. It took me a little while to get into the book as I couldn't warm to the characters in the early part of the book but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end.
I have just finished reading this book at 1.30am - I couldn't put it down. I was so disappointed to not know what happened to Alec (more than anyone). He was the character who really moved me, so vulnerable - infact I found it so terribly sad. Glad that Anna gets to go to Italy but also wanted her to find out the whole story about Nonna
Jun 25, 2011
Danielle
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
wwii,
historical-fiction
I loved the writing style of this book and was engrossed in the characters of Bella, Edward and Alec, but in the end I was a bit disappointed. I felt the modern day story of Anna detracted from the real story (although the author does tie it all together in the end) and I would have loved to hear more about the Bella's life in Italy. Although I realize that not everyone got the answers they were looking for at the end of WWII, it was disappointing that there seemed to be more questions than answ...more
I found the title of this book very misleading. The train journey is only a few pages long and seemed almost irrelevent to the story. This is set in pre-war Italy and post-war England/Ireland then there is a modern day section which I found confusing and irritating. It lent nothing to the story at all. the ending is very rushed and abrupt. There are a lot of unanswered questions and the characters could have been further developed. The back page synopsis was full of promise and I felt let down b...more
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Christine Dwyer Hickey is a novelist and short-story writer. Her novel Tatty was short-listed for Irish Book of the Year in 2005 and was also long-listed for The Orange Prize. Her novels, The Dancer, The Gambler and The Gatemaker were re-issued in 2006 as The Dublin Trilogy three novels which span the story of a Dublin family from 1913 to 1956.
Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story...more
More about Christine Dwyer Hickey...
Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story...more
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