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The Boy in Abruzzo: A Novel of WW II Italy
Motivated by severe food-rationing imposed on his Italian village in the rugged Abruzzo region, a fifteen-year-old boy hikes to a nearby town where a family takes him in. He soon discovers the family, disillusioned by the Fascist government, is also sheltering two fugitive British Army soldiers who have escaped a nearby prisoner-of war camp. Francesco takes on the challenge to reunite the soldiers with the British Eighth Army advancing north along the Adriatic, risking discovery in dangerous encounters with German soldiers. On his journey, boy becomes transformed by the brutality of war, the plight of residents and refugees and an unexpected personal tragedy; yet he is rescued by the renewal of a friendship and his resilience of sprit.
Based on a true life event, the story is an immersive experience of era and geography for WW II military and historical fiction fans.
Based on a true life event, the story is an immersive experience of era and geography for WW II military and historical fiction fans.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
258 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 25, 2022
4 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 6, 2023
I met Louis A. Rosati many years ago when his first memoir, My Winning Season, was released. It was about growing up Italian American in our West End of Lockport, New York, a small Erie Canal city where the largest employers at the time were Simonds Steel and General Motors.
For some reason, as Lockport might remind a tourist of David Lynch's eerie "Twin Peaks" or Paul Newman's rural town in "Nobody's Fool," it's the birthplace or onetime home to some well-known writers, from Joyce Carol Oates (whom Rosati invokes in My Winning Season) to Brock Yates, and from Geoffrey Giuliano to Katherine Hannigan.
Doctor Rosati, a brilliant pathologist, now retired in Mesa, was once called "the real Dr. Quincy," by the Arizona Republic newspaper in reference to the truthful role played by Jack Klugman in the popular 1970s TV show. Rosati puts just as much focused passion into writing as he did during his medical practice--he's very reliable as the author of The Boy in Abruzzo: A Novel of WWII Italy. I'm not much of a war history buff, but this saga involves the reader in fiery teen Francesco's rebellion against the greedy Nazis who have taken control of the Abruzzo region, trying to starve the Italian villagers.
Based on true events and (apparently) a distant relative of Rosati's, Francesco winds up fleeing his family's mountainside shack to join in the gathering resistance to the Nazis and to Mussolini's fascism. The boy helps soldiers Denis Jones, an American POW and Roger Ellis, a Canadian POW, escape the enemy to rejoin their Allied platoons. Along the way, disguised as Italian sheepherders, the POWs bravely dispatch Nazis who get in the way. Francesco's heartbreaking yet heroic adventures with the POWs remind the reader of "Saving Private Ryan" and novels like All the Light We Cannot See and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.
Later, Francesco leaves the Abruzzo for a new life in America at Lockport, New York, of all places, where he is hired by Simonds Steel, the same industrial plant where future author Rosati was also employed while attending medical school at the New York State University at Buffalo. Reunited with Roger Ellis, the Canadian (just over the Niagara River) former POW, who is now a professor, midlife Francesco learns a murderous Nazi--one our hero met in his Abruzzo youth--is hiding in Hamilton, Ontario. And the chase is on to avenge the innocent lives this enemy took in Italy.
Engaging, romantic, suspenseful and, finally triumphant, The Boy in Abruzzo is Doctor Rosati's rugged celebration of the many unsung heroes of the Italian resistance who helped the Allies liberate the motherland from tyranny.
It's an enlightening novel of resilience that every proud Italian American has a responsibility to experience, to solemnly understand where we've been, and to know where we're going.
For some reason, as Lockport might remind a tourist of David Lynch's eerie "Twin Peaks" or Paul Newman's rural town in "Nobody's Fool," it's the birthplace or onetime home to some well-known writers, from Joyce Carol Oates (whom Rosati invokes in My Winning Season) to Brock Yates, and from Geoffrey Giuliano to Katherine Hannigan.
Doctor Rosati, a brilliant pathologist, now retired in Mesa, was once called "the real Dr. Quincy," by the Arizona Republic newspaper in reference to the truthful role played by Jack Klugman in the popular 1970s TV show. Rosati puts just as much focused passion into writing as he did during his medical practice--he's very reliable as the author of The Boy in Abruzzo: A Novel of WWII Italy. I'm not much of a war history buff, but this saga involves the reader in fiery teen Francesco's rebellion against the greedy Nazis who have taken control of the Abruzzo region, trying to starve the Italian villagers.
Based on true events and (apparently) a distant relative of Rosati's, Francesco winds up fleeing his family's mountainside shack to join in the gathering resistance to the Nazis and to Mussolini's fascism. The boy helps soldiers Denis Jones, an American POW and Roger Ellis, a Canadian POW, escape the enemy to rejoin their Allied platoons. Along the way, disguised as Italian sheepherders, the POWs bravely dispatch Nazis who get in the way. Francesco's heartbreaking yet heroic adventures with the POWs remind the reader of "Saving Private Ryan" and novels like All the Light We Cannot See and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.
Later, Francesco leaves the Abruzzo for a new life in America at Lockport, New York, of all places, where he is hired by Simonds Steel, the same industrial plant where future author Rosati was also employed while attending medical school at the New York State University at Buffalo. Reunited with Roger Ellis, the Canadian (just over the Niagara River) former POW, who is now a professor, midlife Francesco learns a murderous Nazi--one our hero met in his Abruzzo youth--is hiding in Hamilton, Ontario. And the chase is on to avenge the innocent lives this enemy took in Italy.
Engaging, romantic, suspenseful and, finally triumphant, The Boy in Abruzzo is Doctor Rosati's rugged celebration of the many unsung heroes of the Italian resistance who helped the Allies liberate the motherland from tyranny.
It's an enlightening novel of resilience that every proud Italian American has a responsibility to experience, to solemnly understand where we've been, and to know where we're going.
April 10, 2023
This is an interesting story based on several incidents in Italy during WWII and its occupation by German forces. I did like Francesco, our main character, and admired his courage and growth as the story developed. However, the narrative really was a slough at times ... it needed more showing and less telling.
April 18, 2023
The German invasation of Italy told through the eyes of a 15 year old young man. This is a very powerful and heartfelt story
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews