Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Pino Lella is opposed to both the Nazis and the war. He is a typical Italian adolescent who is fascinated with food, music, and girls, but his days of youth are numbered. Pino joins an underground railroad to aid Jews fleeing over the Alps when the bombs dropped by the Allies destroy his family’s home in Milan. He also falls in love with Anna, a stunning widow who is six years his senior.
Pino’s parents push him to enlist as a German soldier in an effort to protect him, believing that this will keep him out of battle. But, after Pino is hurt, he is hired at the young age of eighteen to work as General Hans Leyers’s personal driver in Italy. General Leyers was one of the Third Reich’s most enigmatic and powerful commanders.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
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- Soon to be a major motion picture from Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland. Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.
- Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
Now that he has the chance to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino fights covertly while enduring the atrocities of the war and the Nazi occupation, his fortitude inspired by his love for Anna and the future he hopes they will one day have.
At the beginning of this tale, which begins in Milan, Italy, Pino Lella is sixteen years old. Milan has not yet been affected by the war that is sweeping over Europe. Young Pino is having fun with his mates in a relaxed manner. The war breaks out with the arrival of the German troops just days after the story begins. The carefree lifestyle has ended. Pino afterwards joined the German army as a private and was given the responsibility of driving the second-highest-ranking German officer in Northern Italy. He also served as a messenger for the resistance and a guide for Jews crossing the Alps into Switzerland. He showed incredible bravery.
This book is based on the true story of Pino Lella, an Italian teenager who, near the end of World War II, became involved in helping Jews flee to Switzerland over the Italian Alps and then led a double life as a German general in charge of construction’s driver and a spy for the Italian partisans and, indirectly, the Allies.
The story itself is one of incredible bravery against the backdrop of horrifying atrocities by both the Italian partisans who were battling German forces and the German forces themselves. This book has the potential to be outstanding. However, the manner it is presented detracts from the plot.
There are some longueurs where the author goes on for far too long about relatively unimportant domestic and other events. Pino’s innermost thoughts and feelings are simplistically and occasionally repetitively portrayed. The writing style has a jejune feel to it, like something from The Boys’ Own Paper.
It is quite unfortunate. The novel is nevertheless worth reading, despite its telling’s flaws: Many of us don’t know enough about what life was like in Northern Italy as World War II drew to a close. Pino was someone whose courage was never recognized, and for decades he attempted to put all these events behind him.
