*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: The Girl Who Escaped
Author: Angela Petch
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★
Italy, 1940. The girl sobs and rages as her father
tells her the terrible news. “Italy is entering the war alongside Germany. Jews
are to be arrested and sent to camps. We have to be ready.”
As fascists march across the cobbled piazzas and past the
towered buildings of her beloved home city, twenty-year-old Devora’s worst
fears come true. Along with her Jewish parents and twin little brothers they
are torn away from everything they love and sent to an internment camp huddled
in the mountains. Her father promises this war will not last long…
When they are offered a miraculous chance of escape by
her childhood friend Luigi, who risks everything to smuggle vital
information into the camp, the family clambers under barbed wire and races for
the border. But Devora is forced to make a devastating choice between saving a
stranger’s life and joining her parents. As shots fire in the moonless
night, the family is separated.
Haunted by the question of whether they are dead or
alive, all Devora can do for their future is throw herself into helping Luigi
in the Italian resistenza in the fight for liberty. But posing as a maid for a
German commander to gather secret intelligence, Devora is sure she sees her
friend one night, in a Nazi uniform…
Is Devora in more danger than ever? And will her family ever be reunited – or will the war tear them apart?
The Girl Who Escaped is the latest captivating historical fiction
novel from author Angela Petch. It is an emotional roller-coaster of a story
which takes the reader through a journey from truly heartbreaking moments to more
heartwarming moments and I was hooked from the very first page.
I have to applaud Angela Petch for how well she has clearly researched
this story. It meant that the history just seeped through the page. I particularly
enjoyed the use of Italian phrases where appropriate throughout the narrative
as this really supported the story to feel authentic to the setting.
We have a really strong courageous female protagonist in
Devora. Her character growth throughout the progression of the story, based on
her wartime experiences, was extremely well written. I also found the
exploration of Devora’s questioning of her faith to be a really interesting
aspect of the story. We are also given a few chapters from her childhood friend
Enrico’s perspective and, whilst it did add an interesting angle to the story,
I found him to be a thoroughly unlikeable character which made Devora’s
infatuation with him very hard to understand. On the other side of the likeability
scale was another childhood friend Luigi who was a wonderfully written
character I fell in love with almost instantly. I loved the chapters exploring
his story and found them to compliment the chapters focusing on Devora’s story well.
The resistance work Luigi did through his government job registering
births and deaths and falsifying records to protect people was absolutely fascinating
so it made it amazing to read that this character was inspired by the grandfather
of the author’s husband and his courageous actions as a partisan during the
war. I would have liked to have seen a
little more exploration of Sabrina’s character and experiences. The prologue
sets up the story about the four teenagers and whilst we learn lots about
Devora, Luigi and Enrico, we see very little from Sabrina and I do think this
was a shame as the choices she made during the German occupation could have
added an interesting angle to the story if explored in further depth.
The narrative also features a large collection of characters
in minor supporting roles, such as those living in the internment camp
with Devora, the partisans and other Italians supporting the resistance effort.
Angela Petch has a magical and rare ability to craft these supporting characters
in a way which gives such depth to their characters and makes them come alive
on the page, even those who play minor roles in the overall plot.
Two supporting characters whose story was particularly interesting
was Anna Maria and the German soldier she befriends. Whilst avoiding spoilers, I
would have liked their story to have been explored in a little more depth.
The Girl Who Escaped pays wonderful homage to the Italians who
were so courageous during the Second World War, saving the lives of so many Jewish
Italians. As noted in the Author’s Note, approximately 80% of Jews in Italy
survived the war whereas 80% of Jews in the rest of occupied Europe were
murdered. Despite being an avid World War Two historical fiction reader
with a real passion for wartime history, this was something I previously wasn’t
aware of and it was truly fascinating.
Overall, The Girl Who Escaped is a really powerful piece of
historical fiction which I would highly recommend for fans of historical
fiction set during the Second World War. This was my first time reading anything
by Angela Petch but it was an incredible introduction to her work and I can’t
wait to read more from her.
