De laatste trein uit Ligurië

by Christine Dwyer Hickey, Paul Bruijn (translator), Jetty Huisman (translator)

Het is 1933. Bella Stuart laat haar rustige leven in Londen achter zich om in Italië te gaan werken als gouvernante van de zesjarige Alec. Hij is het zoontje van een jonge Joodse erfgename en de aristocraat signor Lami. Wanneer Alecs vader sterft, verhuizen Bella en Alec naar het zomerverblijf van de familie in Bordighera. Daar ontmoet Bella Edward, de pianoleraar van Alec. Geleidelijk groeit er vertrouwen en vriendschap tussen de verlegen Bella, de eigenaardige Alec en de raadselachtige Edward.

Wanneer het fascisme Europa in zijn greep krijgt en Mussolini zijn anti-Joodse wetten invoert, komt Alecs leven in gevaar. Bella krijgt de opdracht om Italië te ontvluchten en het jongetje in veiligheid te brengen.

Dublin, zestig jaar later. Anna Moore bezoekt haar Nonna, die in een verpleeghuis op sterven ligt. Als ze hoort dat haar oma in verwarde toestand Italiaans heeft gesproken, beseft ze hoe weinig ze weet van de vrouw die haar heeft grootgebracht.

In De laatste trein uit Ligurië verbindt Christine Dwyer Hickey het landelijke Ligurië van de jaren dertig met het grauwe bestaan in Dublin tegen het eind van de twintigste eeuw. Dwyer Hickey laat daarmee zien dat identiteit en geschiedenis onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden zijn, wat je ook verhult of verandert.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Italy, Historical, Ireland, World War II, War

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

Christine Dwyer Hickey is a novelist and short-story writer. Her novel Tatty was short-listed for Irish Book of the Year in 2005 and was also long-listed for The Orange Prize. Her novels, The Dancer, The Gambler and The Gatemaker were re-issued in 2006 as The Dublin Trilogy three novels which span the story of a Dublin family from 1913 to 1956.

Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story competition, she was also a prize winner in the Observer/Penguin short-story competition. Her latest novel, Last Train from Liguria, is set in 1930’s Fascist Italy and Dublin in the 1990’s and will be published in June 2009.

Reviews

[Maggie White · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the title of this book very misleading. The train journey is only a few pages long and seemed almost irrelevent to the story. This is set in pre-war Italy and post-war England/Ireland then there is a modern day section which I found confusing and irritating. It lent nothing to the story at all. the ending is very rushed and abrupt. There are a lot of unanswered questions and the characters could have been further developed. The back page synopsis was full of promise and I felt let down by the actual content.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh so wonderfully told. Such a beautiful story, so heart breaking. My heart ached for Bella. For Alec. For Edward. What a wonderful story, showing one little slice of how the war affected peoples, families, friendships.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is currently available for just 99p on kindle - quite a bargin. I must say I enjoyed it immensely. Well written with a lightish touch, I was hooked from page 1.

Christine Dwyer Hickey's characters are realistic and flawed, Edward haunted by a dark past, secretive, an occasional drinker, Bella a thirty something spinster with an eating disorder. Young Alec the child Bella cares for and comes to love, is an unusual boy, probably what today we may recognise as having Asbergers syndrome. For five years the life these three people have at the Villa Lami - the summer home of Alec's Jewish mother - is quiet, Alec has no friends aside from the sisters who visit the area each September and to whom he writes in the interim. Edward lives in the mews behind the house, coming to teach Alec music each day and Bella shares the main house with Alec and Elida the housekeeper. They rarely see Signora Lami - who later remarries - but sometimes have their peace shattered by the obnoxious "American cousins" But in 1938 the new "race laws" of Mussolini cast a long and terrible shadow over their world. After weeks of fear and indecision, Bella and Edward are asked to undertake a dangerous but potentially life saving journey.

Alongside the story of Bella and Edward, we have that of Anna in 1990's Dublin. Mid- thirties her life is spiraling out of control, the only family she has is her grandmother - Nonnie - hospitalised following a stroke and unable to communicate. Anna begins to discover that she doesn't know much about her grandmother's life, and following a revelation of one of the doctors, Anna tries to discover who the woman who raised her really was.

An engrossing read, thoroughly enjoyable.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the title I have chosen for my first book to read for the Italy in Books Reading Challenge, where over the year, month by month I intend to read a book fiction or non-fiction set in Italy, with a total of twelve in all. They will probably not be the obvious choices that come to mind as because of my love for the country I have already read a considerable number of books set here over the years.


I have never read anything by this author before so I have no comparisons to make with previous novels. All I knew was that Christine Dwyer-Hickey is an award winning Irish novelist. While I found this narrative interesting taking us back and forth between London, Dublin and Italy in the nineteen thirties and mid nineteen nineties it neither excited me nor bored me. In fact leaving me feeling rather indifferent about this well written novel. I am disappointed and feel a little guilty admitting this, but there is no point in pretending otherwise. A decent read that was absorbing but nothing particular really drew me in.
The main setting of the story is fascist era Italy where the female protagonist Bella Stuart takes a position as tutor to Alec the son of the aristocratic Lami family. His mother has little time for him and Alec’s life revolves around Bella and his music teacher Edward King. The reader has already learnt much about the latters past in the opening chapter of the novel, a dark secret he keeps to himself in Italy. When the story moves to the present times it is to meet Anna a young woman of Italian descent and gradually connections with the past are uncovered.
It is a vivid picture of Italy during the rise of fascism that the author gives us with a very atmospheric sense of place. A novel not just about the historical period it is set in but a love story of perception and regret.

A review and more details can also be found on my blogs LindyLouMac's Book Reviews and News From Italy

[Judith de Vries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je leest niet alleen over Italië, je bént ook in Italië.., prachtige details, soms iets teveel, waardoor je de geuren en kleuren en geluiden werkelijk ervaart. Het verhaal komt wat traag op gang. Eenmaal in de flow en aangekomen in Bordighera kon ik nauwelijks met lezen stoppen, omdat het ook over WWII gaat zit er uiteraard een schrijnend stuk door het verhaal heen. Niet echt een boek om vrolijk van te worden, wel boeiend.

[Ans Seriese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matig boek, matig vertaald, spannend maar slecht uitgewerkte karakters in een slecht uitgewerkt verhaal: aan de vooravond van WO II gaat Ierse Bella naar Italië als een soort au pair voor een (zouden we nu zeggen) autistisch jongetje bij een rijke familie. Daar is ook “Edward”,gevlucht uit ook al Ierland. Jongetje blijkt half Joods, en Bella en Edward proberen Italië uit te komen met het jongetje en de inmiddels nieuwe baby van de moeder des huizes. Dat lukt Bella en de baby wel, “Edward” en de jongen niet. Tijdschuif naar 1995, Bella, die sinds haar vlucht Rose heet, ligt op sterven en haar kleindochter (die de dochter blijkt te zijn van de gevluchte meisjesbaby en dus de kleindochter van Bella/Rose) realiseert zich dat ze niet veel van haar oma weet. Ze gaat naar Italië en vindt daar eigenlijk niets.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a nice book.
There's a couple of reasons why it is not a WOW, like I expected it to be.
First of all I was a bit disappointed by the story itself. It was quite slow. In iteslef, there's nothing wrong with that, but only when the book / the story got to an end the pace went up for a while. At least I could feel the tension that took hold of the main characters.

Then I missed the story of Bella now. I know thather granddaughter takes over her role (more or less), but I still think it is a shame that we lose track of her after she arrives in England and despite the search of her granddaughter, the events like they took place during the war were not uncovered.
I feel that somehow the story did not really do justice to the whole picture, to the life of Bella, Edward and all the other characters that played bigger and smaller roles in the book.

I did not expect a happy ending, a 'they lived long and happily ever after'. But to let Alec and Edwardjust go 'off at the side of the stage' and not mention them again, not even let there story be traceable for Anna who's interested in her grandma and in what happened during that time, I think that's a misssed opportunity.

The book was not difficult to read. It took me a while, because I just wasn't really that grabbed by it.

[Frank Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The principle protagonist of this novel is the daughter of an Irish surgeon practicing in London in the 1930’s. She is hired as nanny to the son of a wealthy Italian couple where she meets the boy’s reclusive Irish music teacher. We know things about him that she doesn’t because the book opens with an episode from his past. There are other changes of point of view and location as the book progresses, with a disreputably louche teacher in 1990s Dublin. The connection between these two is revealed gradually as the book progresses.
The book is full of utterly believable characters with a plot that reveals the reaction of an innocent when faced with the gradual accretion of Fascist laws, their impact on friends and eventually on the family for whom she is working. Sixty years later, in Dublin, her past life is known to no-one until fragments are revealed in old documents uncovered by the teacher.
I found this to be a fascinating read, combining a subtly realised love story with the gradual unravelling of a mystery.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one - I think. The characters are singularly unlikeable - Edward the Irish alcoholic with a dark secret, Bella the buttoned-up governess, Alessandro with his problems - but the book really works. These three misfits support each other against the backdrop of the rise of Italian fascism and the onset of war, and the scene setting really is spectacularly beautiful and vivid. It's a genuinely strong narrative too, with an interesting modern thread where a grand daughter tries to make sense of everything that happened. I wish I'd liked the characters more though...

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a slow start, this book lived up to its promise. Bella and Edward, both damaged from childhood, and with their own secrets, meet in pre WWII fascist Italy employed to look after the son of a rich couple.

This is a sensitive and lyrical story of relationships, set against the backdrop of the horrifying events in the lead up to the war. The uncertain ending serves to remind us of the countless people who were separated from their loved ones and never found them again.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Elise · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[AC]

Written a year before Cold Eye, which is a gem, this book did not grab me at all. It’s too long, too slow, too meandering. And I was simply too impatient to give it a time it possibly deserves. Others may like it however, as author writes with sensitivity.

[Bayneeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Didn't want it to end. Partly because I had been so immersed in it, and partly because I feared for the outcome. Family secrets, life in Italy prior to WWII, and a young woman discovering she never really knew her grandmother. An emotional and very satisfying read for me.

[Nora Quigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and intriguing, would have loved bit more depth to the ending, but still enjoyed the story

[Marjanneke · Rating 3 out of 5]

De laatste trein uit Ligurië is een lastig boek om te beoordelen. Vanwege de schrijfstijl zou het boek wel vier sterren kunnen verdienen, maar in combinatie met het verhaal, wat veel potentie leek te hebben maar niet helemaal goed tot uitdrukking komt, blijft de beoordeling toch bij drie sterren steken.

Zie mijn volledige review op: https://www.chicklit.nl/boekrecensies...

[Jane Meagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the way this story was written though it was slow moving at first. I loved the description of Italy in those turbulent pre-war days and the love Bella had for Alec and Edward. Im not a huge fan of open ended endings though and this book did end pretty abruptly.

[Lisette De · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik zat te wachten totdat er iets ging gebeuren. Als er eindelijk meer bekend is en de zoektocht gaat beginnen, is het boek afgelopen.

[Kate Yoder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book on my WWOOF host's shelf and decided to read it because the main characters, hilariously, are named Edward and Bella. I was intrigued by the pre-WWII setting in Italy, which turned out to be the best part of the book.

I can't say I really felt attached to any of the characters, and their mysteries were dragged out a little too long. Bella basically fainted whenever anything exciting started happening. Frustrating. At the beginning of the novel, I was convinced she was a late teen or in her early twenties - her character didn't quite match up to the thirty year old she was purported to be.

And don't even get me started on that "Edward" character. Classic drunken handsome mysterious piano teacher that murdered his sister for no apparent reason. Wow, what a catch.

A second narrative thread follows the sad life of Bella's newly unemployed granddaughter in the 1990s. In all honesty, it didn't add much to the story, and the book would have been better without it. Just another character I felt a little bit sorry for.

The little boy Bella looked after, Alec, redeemed the story a bit. His personality seemed to tend toward what we would describe today as Asperger's. Their relationship seemed believable, at least, and a bit endearing.

The ending of this book was the worst. I'm usually up for open-ended story lines, but his book seemed to cut out right when everyone's story got more interesting at the start of WWII.

Not recommended, but strangely enough, I enjoyed reading this book. I guess Christine Dwyer Hickey did something right.

[P J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an extremely well crafted book; you can relax in the knowledge that Christine Dwyer Hickey will not let you down. A proper, confident novel that moves backwards and forwards in time and space and makes sure that you believe in where you are at any time – 1995 Dublin, Genoa 1933, Bordhigera 1938, Dublin 1924. But of course it also prods you with increasing unease as an Irish governess of a little Jewish boy is enfolded into an Italy in which Fascism is moving into the ascendency. Dublin might be tortured, London hypocritically constrained but Italy is relaxed, unthreatening. However, in the Mediterranean sunshine, these smiling friendly people will shun, reject, and ultimately consign him to the darkness. There are no surprises here, after all we know what’s coming (well not completely and the suddenness, the brutality of the penultimate scene still shocked me, as indeed it should us all). It is always worth the reminder of the almost imperceptible changes that people can ignore as a society moves from something friendly, benign, into an area of utter malignity, until indeed, as Martin Niemöller said, they come for me. Perhaps above all though, this is an accomplished love story. This is fiction by an assured hand and well worth the read.

[Mrs Rachel Menna Hamlyn]

I bought this to read on our last holiday abroad before my son was born 5 years ago and have only just got round to it. Consequently, I was looking forward to inhabiting a forgotten gem. The book wasn't quite everything I'd hoped. The language is extraordinary with opulent descriptions and vivid imagery. It did, however, take me a while to get the rhythm and get caught up in the book.

I enjoyed the intertwining themes and story seen from different perspectives. The bulk of the novel takes place in 1930s Italy, which fortunately was my favourite part of the book. I really enjoyed the descriptions of life in Italy and the interplay between expats and native Italians, as well as Bella's relationship with Alec and Edward. The portrayal of the claustrophobic encroachment of Fascism, culminating in the rapid escalation represented by the introduction of race laws, which precipitates Bella and Edward's flight is also deftly drawn.
Some aspects of the book did disappoint, however, specifically the lack of elaboration regarding Nonna or Katherine's post war life or Anna's life in general. I also found the open ending overly abrupt and had to check several times whether the Kindle had malfunctioned.

Overall it is a good read but somewhat unsatisfying in its conclusion.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a bit of two minds about this book. On the one hand it is well written and the story about the Irish spinster Bella who gets sent to the Italian riviera by her father where she settles in the household of the ever absent Lami family is certainly intriguing. Some readers have commented that the story is a bit slow but I find that this contributes to the sense of creeping rise of fascism that slowly seeps into the story and in fact into Italian society.

On the other hand I found the book a bit unbalanced in the sense that the end is a bit rushed and even though Anna, Bella's "granddaughter", goes to Liguria to research her Nonna's past this doesn't really add to the story about some of the main characters. I can appreciate an open ending but got stuck with the feeling that more could have been made of the story. This way the storyline about Anna doesn't really add anything to the book, she just isn't another, not to interesting, character.

Therefore 3 stars instead of 4 although the story in itself deserves 4.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made an exception to my WWII/Holocaust sabbatical, since this was sort of for a bookclub and it was really the lead up to WWII in Italy. There is the main story in the 1920s-1938, and then there is a modern story set in 1995. I thought the modern story was completely unnecessary and detracted from the book since it just seemed gimmicky, but the main story was fairly evocative of 1930s Italy and Europe as the war approached (as far as I know). And that part of the story was original enough, even if the whole investigating grandmother's secret life aspect wasn't. I was also a bit put off by the main characters being named Bella and Edward, but the author must have written the book before the other Bella and Edward became quite so famous.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a very lovely and quietly moving novel. In the 1930s a rather damaged thirty something woman goes to be governess to a rather odd little boy in Italy. Ignored by his mother and his father dead, they live on the Italian Riveria with the house help and a rather mysteries music teacher. When WWII draws close, and because the boy and his baby sister are Jewish on their mother's side, the governess must try to get them out of the country and back to England. Beautifully written and kind of dreamy until the potential horrors of the war arise.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. Initially I wasn't sure how a book about a girl leaving London to go to Italy to become a governess related to Ireland. Through the book, the link to Ireland is made full circle. The story is set in the middle-to-late 1930's during the rise of Mussolini and fascism. It is the story of hidden pasts, and undiscovered family histories.

[Jo Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit it took me quite a while to get into this story, but when I did, I could not put it down. It is a beautifully written, engrossing story. It is sweet and sad and haunting. I find myself thinking about it days after finishing it.

[Iris Bolderman · Rating 3 out of 5]

De cover doet denken aan een streekroman maar dat is het in alle opzichten niet. Knap neergezette imperfecte hoofdrolspelers die door hun zwakte of beter gezegd menselijkheid in een ingewikkelde situatie terechtkomen.

[Beth (bibliobeth)]

I enjoyed this book much better than her previous offering tatty, and on the whole it was beautifully written but I couldn't warm to any of the characters.

[Chrissi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written book although it was incredibly slow to start and jumped all over the place. I also didn't think the characters were developed enough for you to really care about them.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and moving story, characters and setting. Liked the writing style. Will now have a look at some of her other novels.