Review: A Thread of Grace

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Claudette and her father find themselves in the middle of Chaos in Italy. Italy has broken ties with Germany. Between the Nazis invading and looking for Jewish people and people attempting to fight them off, many people are forced into hiding. Every day is faced with danger. People find themselves praying every day for the war to end. This story is based on actual events.

I read this for book club. I will be going to the meeting in a few weeks. I really enjoyed it. It was just really overwhelming for me. Luckily things weren't graphic, but it's not hard to realize what's going on. It's not hard to remember all that I learned about the war. I also found the book really hard to understand at first. That changed once I switched to audio.

About the characters. There were really so many characters. It was very overwhelming. There was a little boy who I couldn't wrap my head around. He was glad his sister was dead. He wouldn't care if his parents died. It just screamed sociopath to me. It chilled me. I'm not even going to lie. Claudette was a very passionate woman. I did like her. The rest of them I just got a bit confused over.

I can't remember the name of the person who narrated the audiobook. I turned in the book before I even thought about it. I had checked the audiobook out from the library. She was very good. I felt like I was actually in Italy in the 1940s. It was hard to get back into my surroundings when I was finished listening to the audio every time. It was intense!

I really did enjoy this story. It just makes me sad. That entire time frame makes me sad. I couldn't imagine how people dealt with things back then. The fear they must have gone through every day. It's just a lot to process. It's very great that people write about history. I hold on to the belief that if we keep the memories alive that we won't make the same mistakes again. Only time will tell.

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