Once Night Falls by Roland Merullo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Once Night Falls is set in a small town in northern Italy during the German occupation of 1943. The war is going poorly for Il Duce and the otherwise ineffectual King Immanuel arrests the Fascist leader and sends him into exile. From that setup, the author introduces a series of characters in single chapters that take us into the inner workings of a partisan cell, a priest connected to the partisans, a Roman businessman whose main commodity is information, and then deep into the hills to meet two lovers Sara and Luca, who ostensibly are the main players in the midst of so many well-drawn characters. And so, after the opening gambit, which one must be patient with to take in the full breadth of the cast as they appear one-by-one on the pleasant stage overlooking Lake Como, Merullo deftly paints a picture of the rising cauldron of anger in the hearts of the Italians who want to be done with the war and the braggadocious leader who led them shambling into their national tragedy. Like all good historical fiction, emotion must permeate the actual event that anchors the novel's conceit. The author produces emotion here in spades, Italian style. When the final trigger is pulled, it's done with the proper vengeance, with the proper affection for the ones' who have been slain, for the belief that love will always prevail, even in the face of such treachery and evil. My feeling after the last page echos the words a newly freed Mussolini turning to his courageous rescuers in thanks telling them, ben fatto. You'll have to read the book to see what he means.



View all my reviews