Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

Hero. Collaborator. Spy. Survivor.  

Based on true events, a young man in Italy leads Jews through the Alps to the safe haven of Switzerland during WWII.  He later becomes a spy while working as a driver for a high-ranking German official. This book reads like an action-adventure with unlimited dangers and evil lurking at every turn.  It seems almost like a movie script, yet the author received the story first hand in interviews with Pino Lella on whom the book revolves.  Mark Sullivan’s thorough and extensive research is also apparent in the well-detailed descriptions of locations and occurrences.   The result is a well-written, staggering portrayal of fortitude and heroism with a nail-biting ending!

A book not to be missed!  Excellent. 

Annette

Further reading about the Holocaust:

Night by Elie Wiesel 

In Our Hearts We Were Giants by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev

Historical Fiction set in WWII:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (Based on a true story of love and survival in Auschwitz.)

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton (About the Kindertransport in the months leading up to WWII.)

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (Based on the author's own family.)

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (About the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in Paris)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Won a Pulitzer)

City of Thieves by David Benioff (Set during the Siege of Leningrad)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (During German occupation of Guernsey Island)

Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor

Non-fiction:

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers (Battle of Iwo Jima)

The Night Witches by Bruce Myles (About all female Russian pilots fighting the Germans.)

U.S. Internment Camps during WWII: 

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Annette