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Rose & Renzo
Not yet published
Expected 14 May 26Manchester 1936
Fascism looms in Europe, and Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts are on the rise.
After the death of their father, two sisters arrive in Manchester’s vibrant ‘Little Italy’: creative misfit, Rose and her much older sister, Ivy. Fearing Rose’s impulsiveness, Ivy seeks to control Rose, forcing her to give up her cherished place at art school.
Frustrated and desperate to pursue her passion, Rose meets Renzo, a painter arrived from Europe. Their connection is instant and powerful. Yet as their feelings deepen, Renzo’s past in Mussolini’s Italy remains a mystery.
As Blackshirts march across the city, Rose is drawn to the fight against fascism, even as she’s compelled to face the devastating question: just which side is Renzo on?
Fascism looms in Europe, and Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts are on the rise.
After the death of their father, two sisters arrive in Manchester’s vibrant ‘Little Italy’: creative misfit, Rose and her much older sister, Ivy. Fearing Rose’s impulsiveness, Ivy seeks to control Rose, forcing her to give up her cherished place at art school.
Frustrated and desperate to pursue her passion, Rose meets Renzo, a painter arrived from Europe. Their connection is instant and powerful. Yet as their feelings deepen, Renzo’s past in Mussolini’s Italy remains a mystery.
As Blackshirts march across the city, Rose is drawn to the fight against fascism, even as she’s compelled to face the devastating question: just which side is Renzo on?
Kindle Edition
Expected publication May 14, 2026
7 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn O'Brien
2 books4 followersCarolyn O’Brien was born in Manchester. She studied English at Cambridge University before qualifying as a solicitor. She now works part-time as a consultant lawyer as well as writing historical fiction. Her writing has a strong sense of the north-west of England and its radical past, as illustrated by her first novel THE SONG OF PETERLOO which was published to coincide with the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre. Her second novel ROSE & RENZO, published May 2026, is a 1930s love story set in the ‘Little Italy’ district of Manchester against the backdrop of rising fascism.
Carolyn lives near Manchester with her family.
Carolyn lives near Manchester with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 23, 2026
Through the compelling love story at the heart of this novel, O’Brien brings to life the “Little Italy” area of Manchester in the mid-1930s. Fascism was on the rise across Europe including, through Mosley, among the English working class. This is unfortunately resonant now.
Rose, the main character, is complex, sympathetic and realistic: sensitive but single-minded, determined and strong but trapped by her sister and their circumstances, intelligent but hampered by dyslexia, artistic, passionate and frustrated by her lack of power. I liked her a lot. Even when she was cowardly or selfish, her behaviour was understandable and her remorse touching.
Renzo is very much worthy of her feelings towards him, clearly the only person she meets with whom she can connect properly. His innate goodness is apparent even though his past is an intriguing mystery. All the secondary characters are also well drawn and multifaceted. I am particularly fond of Lil, Rose’s Mancunian-Italian neighbour, with her mixed dialect, kindness, aesthetic, and disruptive pet bird.
Descriptions are vivid, with lovely language and striking imagery, very much drawing on Rose’s sensitivity to and knowledge of art. Her own expression through drawing and painting develops within the art movements of the time, demonstrating her personal growth over the course of the novel. The dialogue is entertaining and realistic, with the flirting and arguments consistent with the setting, as well as engaging for a reader now. These interactions do a great job at showing how frustrating it must have been to be as restricted as young women were then, also the constraints of poverty and individual helplessness in the face of political oppression. But the novel also celebrates fighting back, passions and camaraderie, small pleasures, empathy, youth, kindness, overwhelming romantic love, the seizing of control over elements of our own lives and standing up for others.
The plot is propulsive, weaving historical events and individual dilemmas. The depth of research underpinning all this is apparent, with details gracefully woven with subtlety into the story and descriptions. I was immersed in the time and place, its poverty, festivals, food, warmth and injustices. Rose and Renzo is absorbing and addictive, conjuring a world and characters which have stayed with me long after reading it.
Rose, the main character, is complex, sympathetic and realistic: sensitive but single-minded, determined and strong but trapped by her sister and their circumstances, intelligent but hampered by dyslexia, artistic, passionate and frustrated by her lack of power. I liked her a lot. Even when she was cowardly or selfish, her behaviour was understandable and her remorse touching.
Renzo is very much worthy of her feelings towards him, clearly the only person she meets with whom she can connect properly. His innate goodness is apparent even though his past is an intriguing mystery. All the secondary characters are also well drawn and multifaceted. I am particularly fond of Lil, Rose’s Mancunian-Italian neighbour, with her mixed dialect, kindness, aesthetic, and disruptive pet bird.
Descriptions are vivid, with lovely language and striking imagery, very much drawing on Rose’s sensitivity to and knowledge of art. Her own expression through drawing and painting develops within the art movements of the time, demonstrating her personal growth over the course of the novel. The dialogue is entertaining and realistic, with the flirting and arguments consistent with the setting, as well as engaging for a reader now. These interactions do a great job at showing how frustrating it must have been to be as restricted as young women were then, also the constraints of poverty and individual helplessness in the face of political oppression. But the novel also celebrates fighting back, passions and camaraderie, small pleasures, empathy, youth, kindness, overwhelming romantic love, the seizing of control over elements of our own lives and standing up for others.
The plot is propulsive, weaving historical events and individual dilemmas. The depth of research underpinning all this is apparent, with details gracefully woven with subtlety into the story and descriptions. I was immersed in the time and place, its poverty, festivals, food, warmth and injustices. Rose and Renzo is absorbing and addictive, conjuring a world and characters which have stayed with me long after reading it.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
It’s ninety years since the Battle of Cable Street, one of dramatic backdrops in Carolyn O’Brien’s brilliant new novel, Rose and Renzo, but the political parallels between 1936 and 2026 are starkly drawn in this heartfelt and compelling coming-of-age story.
Passionate and rebellious, Rose Irvine has grown up pushing against the boundaries of conventional behaviour at her father’s vicarage in leafy Cheshire. After his death Rose and her older sister move to Manchester’s industrial heart taking a low-rent flat and monotonous office jobs in a cotton-mill. Ancoats is dominated by “the dirt-red of the factory and its towering chimney, the stream of workers, the cobbled yard,” but the area teems with life and is home to the city’s vibrant Italian community.
Still grieving for her parents, Rose yearns for love and artistic fulfilment. After an instant spark of attraction at an art gallery, these dreams become embodied in Renzo, an enigmatic but mesmerising visitor from Italy. Rose is smitten by the darkly handsome artist but troubled by Renzo’s apparent connections with the local Blackshirts. Renzo seems to be hiding something. Could that be an involvement back home with Mussolini’s fascists?
Rose is an exquisitely drawn character, a young woman veering between the self-consciousness of adolescence and a youthful boldness that drives her desire for an artistic life filled with creative and sexual freedom. Her fragility is perfectly encapsulated by her stunning bright green trouser suit which she only occasionally feels brave enough to wear.
The writing in Rose and Renzo is so good that you are thrust between the washing-lines in a sooty backyard or into a packed, flickering cinema or a cool and airy gallery where the thrill of surrealist art is opening new horizons for the future. Rose’s struggles immerse us in beautifully observed in the details of pre-war daily life; dolled-up factory girls on a night out linking arms across the pavement; housewives on their knees in unison as they scour their front steps with a donkey stone; a noisy procession around a statue of the Madonna in “a foaming sea of white lilies and gypsophilia.” Yet the story never allows us the confidence of hindsight. Attacks on the home of Rose’s Jewish friend, Freda prompt a question about whether Manchester is really any safer for Jews than Berlin, and in 1936 the answer was not entirely clear. At that point, the way political extremism would lead was no easier to predict than it is today.
Inspired by real lives of artists and idealists of the 1930s, Rose and Renzo is a gorgeous, heady dive into one young woman’s artistic, political and romantic awakening, as well as an intimate glimpse into the lost world of England’s industrial north.
Passionate and rebellious, Rose Irvine has grown up pushing against the boundaries of conventional behaviour at her father’s vicarage in leafy Cheshire. After his death Rose and her older sister move to Manchester’s industrial heart taking a low-rent flat and monotonous office jobs in a cotton-mill. Ancoats is dominated by “the dirt-red of the factory and its towering chimney, the stream of workers, the cobbled yard,” but the area teems with life and is home to the city’s vibrant Italian community.
Still grieving for her parents, Rose yearns for love and artistic fulfilment. After an instant spark of attraction at an art gallery, these dreams become embodied in Renzo, an enigmatic but mesmerising visitor from Italy. Rose is smitten by the darkly handsome artist but troubled by Renzo’s apparent connections with the local Blackshirts. Renzo seems to be hiding something. Could that be an involvement back home with Mussolini’s fascists?
Rose is an exquisitely drawn character, a young woman veering between the self-consciousness of adolescence and a youthful boldness that drives her desire for an artistic life filled with creative and sexual freedom. Her fragility is perfectly encapsulated by her stunning bright green trouser suit which she only occasionally feels brave enough to wear.
The writing in Rose and Renzo is so good that you are thrust between the washing-lines in a sooty backyard or into a packed, flickering cinema or a cool and airy gallery where the thrill of surrealist art is opening new horizons for the future. Rose’s struggles immerse us in beautifully observed in the details of pre-war daily life; dolled-up factory girls on a night out linking arms across the pavement; housewives on their knees in unison as they scour their front steps with a donkey stone; a noisy procession around a statue of the Madonna in “a foaming sea of white lilies and gypsophilia.” Yet the story never allows us the confidence of hindsight. Attacks on the home of Rose’s Jewish friend, Freda prompt a question about whether Manchester is really any safer for Jews than Berlin, and in 1936 the answer was not entirely clear. At that point, the way political extremism would lead was no easier to predict than it is today.
Inspired by real lives of artists and idealists of the 1930s, Rose and Renzo is a gorgeous, heady dive into one young woman’s artistic, political and romantic awakening, as well as an intimate glimpse into the lost world of England’s industrial north.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Rose and Renzo is the best kind of historical fiction. The kind that grabs you at your core and never lets go, pulling you deep into the world of people who matter and whose story matters even more.
Set in Manchester in the 1930’s O’Brien’s story centres on sisters Rose and Ivy, making a new life for themselves after the death of their parents.
Rose, beguiling, wild, wilful and creative, is full of hope and ambition. She is on the brink of taking up her place at art school amongst the new wave of artists and thinkers. Rose is ready to change the world.
But Ivy, her much older blue stocking sister has other ideas.
Forced to work at the local mill in a job she hates Rose is thrust into a life she never wanted. Finding solace in the local Italian community, she is thrust into the political reality of the decade; the ugly realities of antisemitism and the growing tide of fascism. Through her relationship with painter Renzo she catches a glimpse of the future she so desperately wants, whilst also coming to understand that the world is changing. And the time is fast approaching when ordinary people will need to make a stand.
In Rose and Renzo O’Brien has created stunning novel, populated by characters that show an impressive emotional depth and complexity. O’ Brien’s plotting is immaculate; tense, engaging and always pulling the reader in and on.
In a modern day world that is changing before our eyes Rose and Renzo is the novel we need. A timely and much needed reminder to look, once again to the lessons of the past.
I cannot recommend it enough.
Set in Manchester in the 1930’s O’Brien’s story centres on sisters Rose and Ivy, making a new life for themselves after the death of their parents.
Rose, beguiling, wild, wilful and creative, is full of hope and ambition. She is on the brink of taking up her place at art school amongst the new wave of artists and thinkers. Rose is ready to change the world.
But Ivy, her much older blue stocking sister has other ideas.
Forced to work at the local mill in a job she hates Rose is thrust into a life she never wanted. Finding solace in the local Italian community, she is thrust into the political reality of the decade; the ugly realities of antisemitism and the growing tide of fascism. Through her relationship with painter Renzo she catches a glimpse of the future she so desperately wants, whilst also coming to understand that the world is changing. And the time is fast approaching when ordinary people will need to make a stand.
In Rose and Renzo O’Brien has created stunning novel, populated by characters that show an impressive emotional depth and complexity. O’ Brien’s plotting is immaculate; tense, engaging and always pulling the reader in and on.
In a modern day world that is changing before our eyes Rose and Renzo is the novel we need. A timely and much needed reminder to look, once again to the lessons of the past.
I cannot recommend it enough.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Rose & Renzo is a captivating page-turner which drew me in from the very first chapter. This is historical fiction at its best, with gorgeous writing, a vivid sense of place, taut plotting, a compelling love story and relatable characters.
As well as portraying Rose and Renzo’s passionate relationship, Carolyn O’Brien’s second novel also explores the liberating power of art and evocatively depicts everyday life in working class Manchester in the 1930s – including the fight against the ugly rise of fascism.
A beautifully written and totally absorbing read.
(Thanks to Northodox Press for the ARC.)
As well as portraying Rose and Renzo’s passionate relationship, Carolyn O’Brien’s second novel also explores the liberating power of art and evocatively depicts everyday life in working class Manchester in the 1930s – including the fight against the ugly rise of fascism.
A beautifully written and totally absorbing read.
(Thanks to Northodox Press for the ARC.)
Review of advance copy received from Author
Having loved this author’s debut historical novel, Song of Peterloo, I was delighted to be given the chance to read Carolyn’s next book, Rose and Renzo.
A beautifully written, passionate love story, Rose and Renzo caught my heart from the first page. Multi culturalism, surrealism, and the fight against fascism in working class Manchester make for a fascinating backdrop to the central characters growing feelings for each other.
If you love history, a fast paced story and a liberal dash of romance, you will love this book.
A beautifully written, passionate love story, Rose and Renzo caught my heart from the first page. Multi culturalism, surrealism, and the fight against fascism in working class Manchester make for a fascinating backdrop to the central characters growing feelings for each other.
If you love history, a fast paced story and a liberal dash of romance, you will love this book.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
A beautifully written love story that celebrates the redemptive power of art and creativity in the face of poverty and facism. And I could taste the ice-cream in Galletti's Cafe!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews