War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944 - Softcover

Iris Origo

4.19

1,092 ratings by Goodreads

9781782272656: War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782272658 ISBN 13: 9781782272656

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2017

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The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, with a new introduction by writer and social historian Virginia Nicholson, and stunning rediscovered photographs

At the height of the Second World War, Italy was being torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the eventual Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman - born in England, married to an Italian - kept a record of daily life in a country at war. Iris Origo's compellingly powerful diary, War in Val d'Orcia, is the spare and vivid account of what happened when a peaceful farming valley became a battleground.

At great personal risk, the Origos gave food and shelter to partisans, deserters and refugees. They took in evacuees, and as the front drew closer they faced the knowledge that the lives of thirty-two small children depended on them. Origo writes with sensitivity and generosity, and a story emerges of human acts of heroism and compassion, and the devastation that war can bring.

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Review:

It is hard to belive that the popular Italian region of Tuscany, or Chiantishire as it is known these days, was, just 40 years ago, a no-man's land fought over by conflicting armies and ideologies. But British-born writer and wife of an Italian Marchese Iris Origo kept a diary during the Second World War, and has left behind her a compelling account of those turbulent times. Even while German troops were occupying her house, she wrote at night about her valiant attempts to shelter refugee children, burying her diary in the garden each morning. What makes this elegantly written testament so enduringly powerful is Origo's bravery in secretly taking in escaped Allied soldiers, and her modesty--she was too "busy" to be afraid. She also reveals a clear-sighted understanding of the peasants' desperate situation: "Profoundly disillusioned, cynical, tired, fully conscious that more suffering and privations still lie ahead, they are a defeated nation--and the only universal incentive still left is that of self-preservation." Origo is the exception--fearlessly involved in distributing illicit aid, she ran the gamut of German bullets. Essentially, though, hers was a personal war--that of compassion and humanity against politically motivated invaders. -- Lilian Pizzichini

Review:

'A remarkably moving document that, like the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war' -- New York Times

'A compelling story of heroism [and] compassion' -- Washington Post

'A remarkable war diary' -- Telegraph

'It is jolting to recall, through Origo's sober and self-effacing prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944' -- Financial Times

'Relates in vivid detail the experiences of civilians who had the terrible misfortune to find themselves pinned between battling armies... beyond doubt a minor masterpiece' -- Washington Post

'A welcome rediscovery - evoking a unique, strange moment in civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy' -- Kirkus Reviews

'A masterpiece of reportage about the simultaneous world war and civil war that ravaged Italy 70 years ago' -- New York Times

'Superb' --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

'Origo was a remarkable writer, with a clear, engaging style, a mind steeped in history and a scholarship, but alive always to the nuances and subtleties of human relationships. The hope is that [Pushkin's republication of her work] bring her a new generation of readers' --TLS

'In her biographies, she was able to write precisely on the cusp between the two cultures, turning her work into a bridge of interpretation and understanding' --Tessa Hadley, London Review of Books

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PublisherPushkin Press
Publication date2017
ISBN 10 1782272658
ISBN 13 9781782272656
BindingPaperback
Number of pages320
Rating
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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781681372662: War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 (New York Review Books Classics)

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ISBN 10: 1681372665 ISBN 13: 9781681372662
Publisher: New York Review of Books, 2018
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War in Val d'Orcia (Paperback)

Iris Origo

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. War in Val D'Orcia is the elegantly simple chronicle of daily life at La Foce, a manor in a Tuscan no-man's land bracketed by foreign invasion and civil war. Writing with simplicity and grace, Iris Origo describes how she and her husband managed to help refugee children from Genoa and Turin, hide escaped Allied prisoners of war - and stand up to the Germans, who occupied La Foce in 1944 and forced the Origos to retreat under a hot June sun. It is a story of confusion and bewilderment as a peasant society is confronted by disaster and, in the space of a few months, a whole way of life is changed beyond recognition. It is also a story of tragedy and suffering, of individual courage, generosity and heroism. The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, and the struggle to save the children and the rural way of life. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781782272656

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