Torchlight Parade

by Jéanpaul Ferro

On the verge of WWII, Octavio Poliziano, a young Italian-American from Brooklyn, is sent back to the old country by his immigrant parents to care for his aged grandmother. He is a tenor and a musician. He is in love with the local orchestra conductor’s daughter, Watcharee Benso di Cavour, whose face happens to be disfigured. Life is hard, but good,. It is a quiet life in a stunning setting. Without warning Octavio is thrown into the chaos of war, into a perilous wilderness full of mind-bending carnival mirrors, imprisoned on an island, a witness to genocide, one of the first to discover that Nazi death camps exist, and ultimately stagger through the sub-terrain labyrinth of the desperate Nazi’s at the end of the world where the world of Hitler and all that is good collide. The whole time he exerts his strength to return to Watcharee whom he becomes separated from when the evacuation ocean liner he puts her on is torpedoed. Along the way orphaned deaf children learn to sing, ghosts appear, the Russian army takes Octavio in all the while a stunning ghost story unfolds that leads to a shocking ending that causes everything you’ve learned and experience along this journey to become even more beautiful and haunting.

253 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

An 10-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Jéanpaul Ferro’s work has appeared on National Public Radio, Contemporary American Voices, Columbia Review, Emerson Review, Connecticut Review, Portland Monthly, Arts & Understanding Magazine, The Providence Journal, Saltsburg Review, Hawaii Review, and others. He is the author of All The Good Promises (Plowman Press, 1994), Becoming X (BlazeVox Books, 2008), You Know Too Much About Flying Saucers (Thumbscrew Press, 2009), Hemispheres (Maverick Duck Press, 2009) Essendo Morti – Being Dead (Goldfish Press, 2009), nominated for the 2010 Griffin Prize in Poetry; and Jazz (Honest Publishing, 2011), nominated for both the 2012 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize and the 2012 Griffin Prize in Poetry. He was born and raised in Scituate, Rhode Island.

THE DEVIL AND THE BLACKSMITH: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Blacksmi...

THE DEVIL AND THE BLACKSMITH, Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/MEGwnZ_oD3o?si=fgC1i...

Reviews

[Fintan OToole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five beers! Great read.

[Ibibio · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the opening days of WWII, Octavio Poliziano is a young American-born tenor who has been raised by his Italian grandmother in Vieste, Italy after the rest of the family immigrates to the United States. Octavio’s girlfriend, Adriana Patricia, dies under mysterious circumstances, and afterward he falls in love with the beautiful Watcharee Benso di Cavour, who is the daughter of el piccolo maggiore generale, the renown orchestra conductor from Milan that finds himself stuck in the southern Italian village of Vieste. Octavio and his six misfit Italian friends wind up forced into the Italian military at gunpoint, and so starts a wild pilgrimage for Octavio and his friends as they try to return to the village that they love and Octavio to the young woman he has fallen head-over-heals for. I see visages of The Secret of Santa Vittoria within this magical story. Also, a big dose of magical realism similar to the TV show LOST. A bit of Earnest Hemingway too. Few novels suck me in enough to write a review. This was one of those few. LOL

['Lil Beethoven Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic story on the scale of Homer's the Oddessy; we here at 'Lil Beethoven Publisher who are big Jeanpaul Ferro fans loved Torchligh Parade. One part For Whom the Bell Tolls, another part Mad Men, another part the TV classic LOST, we were brought on a ride that spanned continents, wars, decades, and time and space itself. Maybe the most beautiful (and heartbreaking) endings we've ever read. This is one story no one will ever be able to forget.

[Jéanpaul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torchlight Parade follows Octavio Poliziano, a young shepherd and gifted tenor living in the seaside town of Vieste on the eve of World War II. Reeling from the sudden death of his girlfriend and the secrets she left behind, Octavio finds himself trapped between grief, guilt, and the rising darkness spreading across Italy. When a mysterious young woman named Watcharee—bearing her own scars and a past marked by tragedy—rescues him during a blinding snowstorm, their chance encounter sets into motion a bond that challenges everything he thought he knew about love, fate, and redemption. As political tensions grow and old family wounds resurface, Octavio must confront the ghosts haunting his town, including the dangerous cousin who may know the truth behind Adriana’s death.

As spring arrives in Gargano, Octavio struggles against debilitating fear and panic while Watcharee urges him back toward music, life, and possibility. Their tender connection unfolds against a backdrop of ancient olive groves, hidden grief, wartime rumblings, and the magical, haunting beauty of southern Italy. When world-renowned conductor Victor de Sabata announces a performance in Vieste, Octavio is offered a chance at a future far bigger than his pain—if he can find the courage to take it. Torchlight Parade is a sweeping, lyrical novel about love after loss, the scars that shape us, and the light that can rise even in the darkest of times.

[Sitlalli Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first novel of Jéanpaul Ferro's I've ever read. The scenery is so haunting and beautiful. An old Italy that reminds of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, but set in the 1930's and 1940's. You wind up globetrotting around the world as Octavio, the protagonist, is forced at gunpoint with his friends into the Italian military and away from the young woman he has fallen in love with. He winds up in Africa in the war, where they somehow escape (it's rather magically really) and have to make their way back across the Mediterranean and through war-torn Europe and Italy through Switzerland. When Octavio is finally reunited with the young woman he has fallen in love with, Watcharee, he must put her on a cruise liner out of their little coastal Italian town, where starts a whole another epic that is one of the most moving journeys I've ever read.

Super quick read. Real page turner. Heartache and laughter all over the place.

Can't wait to read another by Mr. Jéanpaul. Super excited about that.

--Sitlalli

[Mia Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite novel of all time. It instructed me to see the world as it is, with all its corruption and cruelty and beauty and sadness and magic, and believe it’s worth fighting for, even dying for. Octavio and Watcharee are this generation's Romeo and Juliet. And Italy is the ultimate setting. Torchlight Parade is like a sparkle in the rain. I write it twice, because there is so much to absorb and so much beneath the surface. If you have a weekend to read do yourself a favor and take this one in. It's not super long, but there is so much beauty and heartbreak to unpack here.

[Kristen Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torchlight ParadeOne of the best novels I've ever read! It reads so quickly it feels like a much shorter novel. I read it in 2 days!

You know a novel is well-written and a gem when you complete it you actually wish it wasn't over. Torchlight Parade is one of those gems. Too moved to really express the pain that resonates through this story. Wow. So lovely.

[Sonoya Mizuno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Achingly beautiful. Rarely have I read an epic love story that made me ache inside. This was torturous. Reminded me of Hemingway at times in his war novels, but much more beautiful and otherworldly. Would make a great epic movie by someone like Steven Spielberg. He could do wonders with his novel if it had a film script. Everyone actress in Hollywood would be knocking down the door to play Watcharee Benso di Cavour. What a badass bitch she is!

[Maria Bienvenido · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical story about two soul-mates that become separated during the turbulent years of world war two in Southern Italy. The novel had me routing for Octavio and Watcharee the entire time. A sort of Romeo and Juliet or Arthur and Guinevere. A haunting and dreamlike love story for the ages. Once of the best romances I've ever read. :)

[Callie Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous prose of a wonderful love story set in war-torn Italy in the 1940's. It swept me away with its descriptive detail and beautiful prose. I really, really liked this. I look forward to reading more of Jean Paul Ferro's novels. I have to read this one again.

[Jack Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible read that has a little bit of everything in it for everyone: romance, military, historical, humor, music, magical realism, and, of course, the incredible Italian scenery of southern Italy. 5 stars.

[Astrid Belyaev · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I read this in my 20s, I would have hated it. In my early 30s, I would have misunderstood it. Now that I’m in my forties and I’ve had the chance to read Torchlight Parade I now appreciate it for the timeless masterpiece that it is.

[Gallego Keeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy hermosa historia. Amo Italia y esto me colocó allí mismo en la tierra del encanto. La historia de amor es muy conmovedora y me encanta la joven pareja. Romeo y Julieta para mí. Novela excepcional.

Muy bien. Beautiful!

[Margarite Inisherin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good book. I read it in one day because I could not put it down. It was a quick read and kept me captivated the entire time. It was so hard to put down and touched on every emotion. I laughed. I cried. I got angry. Writing genius.

[Judy Strobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this allegorical novel so compelling, so delightful, so well written, and such a paradoxical mix of sacred-profane and earnest-lighthearted that I was blown away. My only complaint is the ending made me so damn teary-eyed.

[Leonard Ferro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very accurate. Great story

It took me to Europe. I've been to some of those places , and I love the way he described. It's just like what I've seen myself. 😀

[Mikaela Aamodt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghostly love story

[Turbo Cats · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a magical read. Magical. I did not want Torchlight Parade to end. But every ending is its own beautiful beginning.

I will reread this gorgeous book many, many times. You should too.

[Haruka Maeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page turner. Excellent! And the author's Italian is pretty good too in the dialogue.