BENEATH A SCARLET SKY by Mark Sullivan

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

A fictionalized account of teenage Italian boy Pino Lella’s amazing coming of age tale in Northern Italy late in World War 2. Pino’s saga is sweeping, from guiding Jewish refugees through mountain passes to safety in Switzerland under the direction of a Catholic priest, to spying on the Nazis’ number two General in Italy when Pino serves as the General’s driver in Northern Italy, to finding and losing a doomed love. Pino’s rider, General Leyer, is a memorable figure, a man of talent who carries out his evil orders with dispassionate efficiency to progress within the Nazi army, yet seeks repentance in ways that surely fall short. Pino finds himself in central Milan as Allies and the Italian partisans wrest control from the Nazis and Italian fascists, and his experiences evoke admiration of courageous action, exhilaration of victory, and inevitable tragedy in a ruthlessly anarchic environment. Based at least in part on actual events, the prose often has the emotional even-handedness of non-fiction as opposed to a novel’s sense of the suspense of not knowing what lies ahead.