War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944

New
Paperback
2017
$13.89

The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, with a new introduction by writer and social historian Virginia Nicholson, and stunning rediscovered photographsAt the height of the Second World War, Italy was being torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the eventual Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman - born in England, married to an Italian - kept a record of daily life in a country at war. Iris Origo's compellingly powerful diary, War in Val d'Orcia, is the spare and vivid account of what happened when a peaceful farming valley became a battleground. At great personal risk, the Origos gave food and shelter to partisans, deserters and refugees. They took in evacuees, and as the front drew closer they faced the knowledge that the lives of thirty-two small children depended on them. Origo writes with sensitivity and generosity, and a story emerges of human acts of heroism and compassion, and the devastation that war can bring.

Synopsis

The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, with a new introduction by writer and social historian Virginia Nicholson, and stunning rediscovered photographsAt the height of the Second World War, Italy was being torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the eventual Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman - born in England, married to an Italian - kept a record of daily life in a country at war. Iris Origo's compellingly powerful diary, War in Val d'Orcia, is the spare and vivid account of what happened when a peaceful farming valley became a battleground. At great personal risk, the Origos gave food and shelter to partisans, deserters and refugees. They took in evacuees, and as the front drew closer they faced the knowledge that the lives of thirty-two small children depended on them. Origo writes with sensitivity and generosity, and a story emerges of human acts of heroism and compassion, and the devastation that war can bring.

$13.89

Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 23 Feb 2017
ISBN 10: 1782272658
ISBN 13: 9781782272656

Media Reviews

A remarkably moving document that, like the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war New York Times A compelling story of heroism [and] compassion Washington Post A remarkable war diary Telegraph It is jolting to recall, through Origo's sober and self-effacing prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944 Financial Times Relates in vivid detail the experiences of civilians who had the terrible misfortune to find themselves pinned between battling armies... beyond doubt a minor masterpiece Washington Post A welcome rediscovery - evoking a unique, strange moment in civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy Kirkus Reviews A masterpiece of reportage about the simultaneous world war and civil war that ravaged Italy 70 years ago New York Times Superb -- Jonathan Yardley Washington Post

Author Bio

Iris Origo (1902-1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. Pushkin Press also publishes her memoir, Images and Shadows, as well as two of her biographies, A Study in Solitude: The Life of Leopardi - Poet, Romantic and Radical and The Last Attachment: The Story of Byron and Teresa Guiccioli.