Eternal

by Lisa Scottoline

Syndrome K is a lethal and highly transmissible virus. If you or any of your men enter this isolation ward, you will contract the virus.

Nazis loaded Sandro’s truck until it was full, then latched its back, and drew down its canvas flap, as if crime could be covered by mere cloth.

Beppe reached for Marco’s arm. “Take care of your mother.”

Killed at apartment

Four people lay dead in the Terrizzi kitchen, and the gruesome scene spurred Marco into action, despite his grief.

corpses of Carmine and Stefano in blankets, and

took them from the apartment, to dump them in the Tiber

War welcomed and concealed the most heinous of crimes.

Marco had planned to sacrifice himself for Sandro, but his plan had failed. Instead, Sandro had sacrificed himself for Marco. The wrong man had died, and Marco knew it. He gazed up at the black and empty sky. He closed his eyes and saw the same void. He cried with Elisabetta, all the way to Rome.

the name of the labor camp was Auschwitz. Massimo

Her menstrual period was overdue.

“I know that you’re pregnant.”

I lost my brother, my father, my best friend—hell, Elisabetta, I lost a war. I was wrong about Mussolini, and about so many things. It humbled me.”

“Life in mourning is like that. We do not have everything we want. We do not have everything we need. We are missing so much. We are missing those we love. Our hearts ache all the time.”

War was eternal, but so was peace. Death was eternal, but so was life. Darkness was eternal, but so was light. Hate was eternal, but above all, so was love.

only sixteen had survived—fifteen men and one woman, Settimia Spizzichino.

about ten thousand of Rome’s twelve thousand Jews had survived by hiding in the Vatican, monasteries, convents, and homes.

massacre he had ordered at the Ardeatine Caves.

she was more beautiful than ever, since she was three months pregnant.

Alexander Stille’s Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism

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