Beneath a Scarlet Sky Book Review

I will be the first to tell you that I believe WWII literature is vast and sometimes repetitive, but that all the stories are worth sharing. WWII is a vault of knowledge and a cause for a wealth of imagination of authors of all kinds. It is difficult to not be inspired by the true stories of heroes, both male and female, of all religions, races, and ethnicities during this tumultuous point in history. It is only natural for so many authors to find stories they want to share out of this time period, and actually quite heroic for them to want to bring even more visibility to the heroes of WWII in increasingly creative ways.

This is why I will also be the first to tell you that I believe Beneath a Scarlet Sky did a good job bringing the Italian front to life for many readers, even if the writing itself was mundane. I do believe it's true that history focuses on more of the big players and the smallest underdogs. Italy fell somewhere in the middle, and deserves recognition for the role it played in history: for the good and the bad. We can only repeat history if we don't listen to it, and Italy was ready to tell her story.

Mark T. Sullivan is an American author who has currently published 14 novels, all either suspense, mystery, or historical fiction. In the preface of Beneath a Scarlet Sky is where the true story comes to light. Sullivan explains that he had been in a bad place just before the idea for this novel came to him - in fact, he was contemplating suicide the very night he first heard of Pino Lella. Luckily, as soon as he heard the Italian war hero's name at a dinner party, Sullivan found purpose in using that man's amazing yet still mostly mysterious story as fuel for a new novel. Sullivan found the means to travel to Italy and meet Pino, and eventually produced this novel that he describes as "biographical and historical fiction that hews closely to what happened to Pino Lella between June 1943 and May 1945" (Sullivan 4). Later, in the afterward, Sullivan clarifies that because of the mass burning of Italian documents describing the atrocities performed by the Nazis and Fascists on Italy, there are paper trail gaps that Sullivan fictitiously filled in, which is why this strange genre is how the story fleshed out.

Overall, this novel was inspiring in the sense that there was so much heart and effort that had gone into describing Pino's story, and giving credit to the other Italian war heroes. I quite enjoyed following and learning Pino's experiences as someone who snuck Jews out of the country, and as a spy. I thought there were some really well-paced moments during the novel that reminded me of the importance of historical fiction in today's day and age. I believe this book is widely readable for many types of readers (if you can get over the page count), which is one of the book's advantages. The accessibility of historical fiction, especially when related to wartimes, is spotty because of the violence and mature themes, but I believe that Beneath a Scarlet Sky can inspire and intrigue younger readers to read more from this genre.

However, the readability of the prose does leave something to be desired. The mundane prose and awkward fumbling of scenes is a disappointment after having read other amazing historical fiction that is also bringing to light new perspectives on WWII. Beneath a Scarlet Sky seems advertised to be in the same tier as other tremendously successful historical fiction novels, but it fell short. I believe Pino Lella's story is inspiring, but the prose to make it a memorable, long-lasting story was missing. It is not the story, but the way it was written, that makes me hesitant to truly recommend this book to others. Rather than remembering some of the most heroic moments of the novel, I remember the uncomfortable prose of the romantic moments of the novel, or the uneven pacing and awkward dialogue. For a 400+ page novel, I was expecting more.

The heart was evident, as was the effort. I can appreciate the time it takes to learn someone else's story and to painstakingly try to perfect it for the page. I respect the difficulties that must have been undertaken to combine this story into this strange biographical/historical ficiton genre. But I do wish that the story had been written more concisely, with sharper prose, something I think could have been achieved had a specific genre been chosen, rather than try to get the best of both worlds. I think that also would have made readers more on edge during the moments when Pino was almost caught, or cry when the end plot twist is revealed (I was sadly able to guess what was about to happen, which only reinforced my wish for better storytelling). No matter how much heart and effort is evident in the story, if the prose doesn't effectively convey all of that, readers won't take all the emotion out for themselves. They won't try to look and understand the world differently.

Even though I disagree with the way the story was told, I believe it is still a most inspiring story for multiple reasons. I do hope with the release of this novel that more people pick up historical fiction, and that more people will take a deeper interest into the Italian side of WWII. WWII is always a fascinating subject of research for historians, writers, and so many more, so I hope more stories like Pino's come to life. Hopefully, Beneath a Scarlet Sky can be the catalyst to the release of more Italian WWII literature. Sullivan deserves great credit for painstakingly recording Pino's and others' adventures and bringing them the spotlight they deserved. We can only hope that other heroes all across the world can come into light with the same amount of heart.