Finishing Sigi and the Italian Girl ..... under the same Italian sky

Now I think it is quite appropriate that I should have finished Sigi and the Italian Girl by Stephen Hale, just 20 minutes drive from where it was set just north of Genoa.

We have been staying with our Italian family in Varese, and moved on to a small village on Lake Mergozzo not unlike the place he writes about.

I won’t of course spoil the plot, other than to say it is set in a small mountain community in 1944 and switches from the war to the present.

Stephen captures perfectly small town Italy, where everyone knows what everyone’s family has done all the way back four generations, and where petty rivalries and loyalties can shape who you like, and who you sit with.

In our bit of Varese, Rosa can tell you who ran off without paying at the local bakery, the last time her neighbour washed the curtains and much more.

And sitting in the Piazza Monte Grappa, I can recognise people who could be a double for some of his characters, like the old man sitting in the late September sun or the group of retired friends who walked up and down the Corso Giacomo Matteotti, never quite being able to part from each other’s company.

I watched them walk back and forth, stop, shake hands, tell a final joke, and then stay together for one final walk back past the patisserie, the entrance to the church square, and the statue of one of Garibaldi’s Red Shirts.

And that all makes Sigi and the Italian Girl, a good read because these people walk Stephen's pages.

Not that you have to have lived in Italy to be gripped by the plot or convinced by the characters.

Running through the plot are
themes of resistance, loyalty and hard decisions about how individuals face up to authority.

And on our way here we passed the a big museum to the Resistance and everywhere there are memorials to those who fought the occupying German army and the Fascists.

So more than a bit empathetic.

And that just leaves me to hunt for a postcard to the kids at home in the house.

The book stands on its own and is well worth the read.

It's available in two formats: paperback at £7.99 and Kindle at £2.99.*

Location; Italy

Pictures; cover of Sigi and the Italian Girl, courtesy of Stephen Hales, and the Piazza Monte Grappa and Corso Giacomo Matteotti, 2013, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Sigi and the Italian Girl, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigi-Italian-Girl-Stephen-Hale/dp/1545431876/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534927648&sr=8-2&keywords=sigi%20and%20the%20italian%20girl

That new novel .......Sigi and the Italian Girl

Now I remain in awe of those who write fiction, which I think is far more challenging than writing factual accounts of the past.

To begin with it demands the ability to create characters with depth which are convincing and who you feel you could know.

And that is what Stephen Hale as done in his novel Sigi and the Italian Girl, which is set in a small Italian village north of Genoa and alternates between today and 1944.

At which point I have to confess this is only a partial revue, given that I only got the book on Monday and have read about 10%, but that is enough to be gripped by the plot, and believe in the characters

Added to which Stephen describes perfectly what a small Italian village is like.

Part of my family is Italian and we regularly spend chunks of the year in the north, and while his village is imaginary it is drawn from his own experiences of a small rural community and chimes in with real places I know.

So there you are.

I shall return with a final review when I have read it, but rest assured the plot and end will not be revealed, for that you will just have to buy it.

It's available in two formats: paperback at £7.99 and Kindle at £2.99.*

* Sigi and the Italian Girl, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigi-Italian-Girl-Stephen-Hale/dp/1545431876/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534927648&sr=8-2&keywords=sigi%20and%20the%20italian%20girl

Sigi and the Italian Girl ......... one to read this summer

Now I am looking forward to reading Sigi and the Italian Girl.

First because its backdrop is Italy, a country I long ago fell in love with, and secondly because the author Stephen Hale lives just a few houses up from us.

Stephen tells me that “it is set in an Italian mountain village and is a time-shifting tale which moves between the Nazi occupation in the 1940s and the same village's 21st century 'occupation' by hippies and bohemian types. The plot moves between two love stories – grandfather's and grandson's - separated/joined by 65 years. 

It's available in two formats: paperback at £7.99 and Kindle at £2.99”.

My own Italian family live in the north at the foot of the mountains, but come from Naples and grew up in that city during the last war.

So that has sold it for me.

I might add that Stephen has taken the bold step of self publishing, which has great advantages, in that while the author takes a risk, it means they are in full control.

All of which just leaves me to say that I will popping up Beech Road to get my own signed copy, and will be back with a review on the blog in a few days.

* Sigi and the Italian Girl, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigi-Italian-Girl-Stephen-Hale/dp/1545431876/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534927648&sr=8-2&keywords=sigi%20and%20the%20italian%20girl