I didn’t think I was going to enjoy ‘Laws are Silent’. According to the jacket notes, it is set in a country about which I know very little – Italy – and deals with a topic about which I rarely read – war. However, after just a few chapters, I was hooked into the story and raced through all 384 pages in just a couple of days.
The title comes from a quote by Cicero: Laws are silent in times of war. In fact, this book is about much more than Mussolini’s Italy. Starting in Tuscany in 1939, it covers a period of 26 years, taking in Fascists and Resistance Fighters in Italy; the early stirrings of Communism in Western Europe; the trials of being a teenager in a strange land; love in the Blitz; post-war Britain and academia in the USA; before returning full-circle to its origins. It is the story of Vincenzo Di Tomasi, his wife Alice and their son Beppe – who becomes Joe. It is also the story of Livia Carduccio and her young child Isabelle. A constant theme throughout the book is another Di Tomasi son, Enzo. His death is announced in the opening paragraphs, but his presence and influence on the lives of the other characters lingers delicately in the background.
This was an excellent holiday read. Reading this book was like having a really good magazine serial – without have to wait each week for the next instalment. The ending, while perhaps inevitable, is well written and very satisfying.
Published by YouWriteOn.com; ISBN 978-1-84923-801-4
(Review first published in The Women Writer by Society of Women Writers and Journalists)
