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ashleysilver7's review
4.0
I had never heard of this book or author before, and I was delighted to stumble upon it in the online library. Having traveled to Genoa and (very briefly) Portofino, I know firsthand the beauty of the Italian coast. However, prior to reading this novel, I knew very little about Italy and WWII. Interestingly, Mussolini (Il Duce), through his "truce" with Nazi Germany, was able to keep ravages of war at bay until his capture in July, 1943. This isn't to say the Italian people didn't suffer immensely...he was a Fascist dictator and many Italian citizens suffered under his harsh regime.
After Mussolini was captured, both the Allied forces AND the Nazis then invaded Italy. The Italian citizens suffered even more...however, in Portofino Elodie is able to find shelter and to recover from the trauma she endured while staying with Angelo. Elodie is a cello prodigy from Verona, and is also a member of the Italian resistance. Angelo is a doctor and a veteran from the Italian/Ethiopian war.
This is a beautiful, well researched novel. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
After Mussolini was captured, both the Allied forces AND the Nazis then invaded Italy. The Italian citizens suffered even more...however, in Portofino Elodie is able to find shelter and to recover from the trauma she endured while staying with Angelo. Elodie is a cello prodigy from Verona, and is also a member of the Italian resistance. Angelo is a doctor and a veteran from the Italian/Ethiopian war.
This is a beautiful, well researched novel. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
jacki_f's review against another edition
2.0
This is the story of Elodie, a cellist living in Verona during WW2 who gets involved with the Italian Resistance. It's...okay. It's fine. There are some lovely descriptions of Italy and the story starts really well and is moderately involving, but no more so than that. It's certainly not a patch on "The Lost Wife" by the same author.
What I didn't like was firstly, that none of the characters felt terribly involving or real. Nor did I feel any particular suspense with any of the supposed danger that Elodie was in. It felt like the risks that she was taking were pretty slight and for minimal benefit as well. There are other books that cover similar territory much better, such as [b:The Nightingale|21853621|The Nightingale|Kristin Hannah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422580224s/21853621.jpg|41125521] or [b:Trapeze|13000865|Trapeze|Simon Mawer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333580751s/13000865.jpg|18161766].
The story itself seemed to have elements that happened for no particular reason other than to serve the plot. I have no idea why Elodie's mother had never returned to Venice, a short train trip away. Or why Elodie even came to Portofino. And I find it ludicrous that (minor spoiler ahead - skip to the next paragraph to miss it but really, surely you're not going to read this ridiculous book) - how can someone feel a baby kicking inside another person's stomach only a month after they get pregnant - that is defying all medical science.
Other things irritated me, like the way the book lurches from the present tense to the past tense. Initially I thought that the past tense would be for everything up to when the book opens, but that's not the case. It just becomes distracting. And don't even get me started on the ending - I mean, really? All wrapped up neatly like that?
If you love music, you may like this book because that plays a central part in the story. And if you like Resistance novels you may like it, but it's one of the weaker ones. I struggle to recommend it.
What I didn't like was firstly, that none of the characters felt terribly involving or real. Nor did I feel any particular suspense with any of the supposed danger that Elodie was in. It felt like the risks that she was taking were pretty slight and for minimal benefit as well. There are other books that cover similar territory much better, such as [b:The Nightingale|21853621|The Nightingale|Kristin Hannah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422580224s/21853621.jpg|41125521] or [b:Trapeze|13000865|Trapeze|Simon Mawer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333580751s/13000865.jpg|18161766].
The story itself seemed to have elements that happened for no particular reason other than to serve the plot. I have no idea why Elodie's mother had never returned to Venice, a short train trip away. Or why Elodie even came to Portofino. And I find it ludicrous that (minor spoiler ahead - skip to the next paragraph to miss it but really, surely you're not going to read this ridiculous book) - how can someone feel a baby kicking inside another person's stomach only a month after they get pregnant - that is defying all medical science.
Other things irritated me, like the way the book lurches from the present tense to the past tense. Initially I thought that the past tense would be for everything up to when the book opens, but that's not the case. It just becomes distracting. And don't even get me started on the ending - I mean, really? All wrapped up neatly like that?
If you love music, you may like this book because that plays a central part in the story. And if you like Resistance novels you may like it, but it's one of the weaker ones. I struggle to recommend it.
susanp's review against another edition
3.0
OK. The suspense didn't seem very suspenseful, the excitement very exciting, the romance very romantic. Nothing like The Lost Wife.
reneesmith's review against another edition
5.0
Lyrical. Tragic. Life-affirming. Fairy-tale like quality. How the beauty of words and music sustain & enrich us even in the midst of brutality. How shared stories and new life transform mere survival into a story of love.
windywife's review against another edition
5.0
As soon as I finished the book, all I could say was “WOW”. So much emotion rolled into this book. The highs and lows of war and love. Two storylines that merge into one.
Cautionary: miscarriage, stillbirth, death, torture, sexuality
Cautionary: miscarriage, stillbirth, death, torture, sexuality
manaledi's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this, partly because the "garden of letters" of the title is rather familiar to my posting and saving of mail. The book was fundamentally three love stories, but deeper than that was a story of loss and resilience and beauty in the face of pain.
mahdigasmi's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
The garden of letters is a historical fiction book set in Italy during world war 2, it follows two interweaved stories of Elodie and Angelo.
Elodie is nearly twenty, she's a gifted cello player, elodie's life was the quiet type it was all about cello and her lovely musician parents.
On the other hand, Angelo is a doctor from the beautiful village of Portofino who went through some tragic issue and oh man it was sad!
The interweave comes when Angelo rescues Elodie's life in the port of Portofino. The book starts from there and goes back forth to their stories.
I couldn't ask for more than the first half of this book, it was simply phenomenal!
The writing was SOOO BEAUTIFUL you can't believe it! I was hooked up for real. The writer provided a complete set up with magnificent description and outstanding characters. The characters in this book are big plus. They were so lively and real, each one of them has its own identifiable voice because the author presented each character on its own so that was that.
I bizarrely liked the love story, it wasn't clichéd and it felt more mature to me.
Everything seemed so real especially the tragic parts and specifically Angelo's I guess I loved his story even more than Elodie's.
The historical facts were interesting and I look forward to learn more about the Italian history
I unfortunately can't say the same thing about the second half of the book, I struggled through and I wanted it to end as quick as possible. I thought that author didn't give a lot of space for more action and focused on the love details a lot, it was fine at the beginning but than it was messed up. The ending wasn't really satisfying as well,it didn't make sense to me the happily ever after in the middle the German invasion.
One more thing that kept going on my mind is the message or it's better to say the value of the message in this book, I felt like except from the history part I haven't taken any thing that matters from it which is a bit disappointing. in
The garden of letters is a historical fiction book set in Italy during world war 2, it follows two interweaved stories of Elodie and Angelo.
Elodie is nearly twenty, she's a gifted cello player, elodie's life was the quiet type it was all about cello and her lovely musician parents.
On the other hand, Angelo is a doctor from the beautiful village of Portofino who went through some tragic issue and oh man it was sad!
The interweave comes when Angelo rescues Elodie's life in the port of Portofino. The book starts from there and goes back forth to their stories.
I couldn't ask for more than the first half of this book, it was simply phenomenal!
The writing was SOOO BEAUTIFUL you can't believe it! I was hooked up for real. The writer provided a complete set up with magnificent description and outstanding characters. The characters in this book are big plus. They were so lively and real, each one of them has its own identifiable voice because the author presented each character on its own so that was that.
I bizarrely liked the love story, it wasn't clichéd and it felt more mature to me.
Everything seemed so real especially the tragic parts and specifically Angelo's I guess I loved his story even more than Elodie's.
The historical facts were interesting and I look forward to learn more about the Italian history
I unfortunately can't say the same thing about the second half of the book, I struggled through and I wanted it to end as quick as possible. I thought that author didn't give a lot of space for more action and focused on the love details a lot, it was fine at the beginning but than it was messed up. The ending wasn't really satisfying as well,it didn't make sense to me the happily ever after in the middle the German invasion.
One more thing that kept going on my mind is the message or it's better to say the value of the message in this book, I felt like except from the history part I haven't taken any thing that matters from it which is a bit disappointing. in
jbethke's review against another edition
4.0
I have to count this as my favorite WW2 novel so far. While I wished some scenes were written differently, the author did beautifully at making me care about the characters.