The year is 1943 - World War II is in full swing. Mussolini has lost his hold on Africa - the Allies are rapidly advancing, and the Germans are holding their own for now.
Restoration
by Olaf Olafsson
Ecco
February 2012
Alice's father is dead - her mother remarried to a rich Englishman. Alice is planning to marry an Italian - the son of a minor landowner but a titled nobleman. He is ten years older than she and her family and friends try to discourage her from marrying Marchese Claudio Orsini. They marry, against her family's wishes, in the Salone Del Matrimini in Fiesole and begin a journey that takes them to San Martino, a crumbling villa in Tuscany. They settle in as husband and wife, rebuild the villa, and Alice gives birth to a son - the joy of their life.
Alice soon becomes lonely and restless. This restlessness leads her into an affair in Rome with devastating consequences. While she is with her lover, her son becomes ill and dies. She returns home to seek forgiveness, but before she can make amends, Claudia disappears. Caught between loyalist and resisters, cruel German forces and Allied troops, Alice struggles to survive. She desperately hopes Claudio will return to her. She knows this is all her fault. Her son is gone and now too is her husband. Will she ever find the peace she so earnestly seeks?
A well written novel. Olafsson is an excellent writer. I really liked the book.
Highly recommended.
