Soon to be a major television event from Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland.
Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the USA Today and #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours. Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian … the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.
In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.
Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.
Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.
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I had this on my TBR far too long. Stunning book!
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book, but the characterization is so strong I couldn’t put it down. Rich world-building. Highly recommended!
I love historical fiction and this book fits the bill and more. At first I thought it might be something like The Forgotten Soldier, the epic about someone forced into the German army to fight on the Eastern Front, but the setting was Italy and the story not as brutal but the tug of loyalty and fealty was just as strong.
I met Mark Sullivan this summer at the ThrillerFest Writer’s Conference. He sat down next to me at a luncheon and we chatted. I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know anything about his writing. I do recall, he mentioned that he was at the lowest point in his life, I assumed his writing career, when by chance the amazing story of Pino Lella was shared with him. Upon hearing it, Mark was driven to write his story. I can’t remember what more we might have talked about. I bought his book and it joined my stack of to be read books. I had no idea what the book was about, the cover and the title could reflect anything.
Last night I finished reading Beneath A Scarlet Sky and I can without hesitation say this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It is a sweeping epic about a young Italian man’s heroism during WWII. This slice of history rarely written about, the Nazi occupation of Italy, and particularly Milan. That the story is true makes every word resonate deeply, and Mark’s writing is lyrical, vivid, crisp, and not for lack of superlatives, just beautiful. He spent years researching this book, and it shows in the detail and historical accuracy of every word. Being gifted Pino’s memories was a blessing, giving them life is no less than brilliant.
Every character in this book is fully fleshed out. Of course, I fell in love with Pino, a young man who had no aspirations of being sucked up into the vortex of war, but with every turn of fortune finds himself drafted in a sense, his life and future determined by a war that will test him and force him to decide what kind of man he wishes to be.
As with all great novels, there is a love story and Beneath a Scarlet Sky is as much as anything else a love story. Finding love amid the scorched earth scenes of war is a miracle, holding on to that love amid the deadly daily dangers perhaps makes it all the more precious.
Mark Sullivan does such a brilliant job of giving life to the characters that I found myself empathizing and admiring the antagonist, a Nazi General who throughout the book is an enigma. World War II is a period of history that I’m highly versed on. My mother is a Holocaust survivor and there’s not much I don’t know about the period, including first-hand accounts. I could go on for hours about why this book deserves your attention, but I think you get the gist of what kind of novel Mark Sullivan has brought to life. Beneath A Scarlet Sky is a masterpiece.
This book will keep you guessing after every page. I’ve never been a historical fiction lover until I read this. The novel will grip you and pull you, it will make you cry, it will make you angry, and it well make you believe love is possible even in the worst circumstances. Most of all, it will also remind you that whatever you do, you MUST have faith.
This book is based on a true story and takes place in Italy during the WWII. It’s about a young man who, against his will, becomes part of the resistance and ends up driving a high-ranking German officer around. It’s intriguing and moving, inspirational and sad all at the same time.
I loved this book. What made it an even more sensational read is that everything in it actually happened. It’s a WW2 story about a young Italian boy who becomes a seriously heroic young man during Mussolini’s Fascist regime and after Hitler’s army occupies Italy. It has romance, suspense, intrigue, spies and real-life danger. Plus I got to see what real life was like in Italy during this traumatic time.
Captivating!
The whole time I was listening to this, I just kept thinking, I can’t believe this is a true story. Everything fits together so perfectly, it almost feels like it had to have been plotted out–and it would have been spectacular, even if it had been. But the fact that the story actually happened makes it seem more like a study in fate.
The story follows 17-18 year old Pino Lella (it spans both years), an Italian boy from Milan during WWII. When he’s 17, too young to get drafted by the Nazis, his father sends him to a boys’ school for much younger boys than he is. There, Father Rey has him train to mountain climb. In short order, once Pino knows the mountains well enough to hike them in the dark, blindfolded, and without leaving a trace, Father Rey enlists him to help smuggle Jews over the border to Switzerland. He also meets Alberto Ascari while at that school, who teaches him to drive like a maniac. Both skills become critical later.
When Pino turns 18, old enough to be drafted and sent to the front lines of the war to die for the Germans, his parents force him to enlist as a Nazi. That way he will be assigned to less deadly tasks, and can wait out the war. He resists, but is overruled. As fate (or God) would have it, though, Pino happens across a frustrated driver, attempting to fix a car. Having been taught a great deal about cars by Ascari, he fixes the car–only to discover it belongs to General Leyers, of Nazi high command. Leyers makes Pino his personal driver, and his close contact with Leyers makes him a perfect spy for the Resistance. Leyers is also a fascinating character. Even Pino wondered throughout the story, and for the rest of his life: who was Leyers, really? Was he evil? Or was he actually a hero and a spy, just like Pino himself?
The story is heartbreaking, of course, because it’s WWII — but also exhilarating. It’s also very different from almost any other WWII account that I’ve ever heard, since (as the book points out) the Italians just didn’t talk about the war. This rare look at the Italian front shows the multiple conflicts, not just between the Nazis and the Resistance, but also between the Resistance and the Fascists. The hatred runs deep on all sides, and no one is entirely without blame. I do like stories that end happy, and while there was a hefty share of tragedy in this story, the ending is still bittersweet.
Dystopian stories are still so popular these days, but it’s even more fascinating to read about a real dystopia, not so very long ago.
I love Historical novels! True life people and what happened to them.
World War II in Milan. I had never read about this aspect of the War, even though I have visited Milan. This is a true story about a teenager and all the things that happened to him during the war. Hard to believe someone could have all these different experiences in a few short years. Fascinating. Hard to put down.
This is an interesting, true story of a young man becoming a man during WWII in Italy. It’s fascinating, one of those books that proves life is often stranger and more exciting than fiction. Quite an amazing story, really.
An amazing story of a young man’s life in Italy towards the end of WW2 told in a straight forward way.
I passionately believe stories such as Pino’s should be recorded for future generations. So many stories have already been lost so full marks to the author for researching this one so diligently. The bravery of people and the dreadful decisions they were forced to make in the face of horror should never be forgotten. The increased dangers as the Nazis were fleeing were especially chilling.
The book’s style sits in an awkward position between a biography and a novel. I am primarily a novel reader so I wished the author had done more to bring the characters to life.
JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE HEARD ALL THE STORIES
FROM A WAR WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET.
“…the Nazi occupation of Italy and the Catholic underground railroad, which was formed to save the Italian Jews, have received scant attention. Some 60,000 Allied soldiers died fighting to free Italy. Some 140,000 Italians died during the Nazi occupation…historians have taken to calling it the “Forgotten Front.”
Beneath A Scarlet Sky offers the above story in such a masterful storytelling ability, I immediately hit the Amazon “Follow” button wanting to pick up more of Mark Sullivan’s work. Pino Lella, in this story, is such a reluctant but yet incredibly brave hero who offers an indominable spirit of doing what is right.
The danger of Pino’s journeys is intensified by the atrocities of war and the perilous terrain. Still, yet, what I enjoyed about this story even more than its historical significance was that Pino is only 17 years old.
For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to books about World War II. From Gordon Prange’s At Dawn We Slept, which I read in college, to Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, which I listened to last year, I have consumed more than thirty works on the war.
So I did not need much motivation this month to add another title to that list. I needed even less to listen to a celebrated novel that covers several aspects of the war from an unlikely perspective.
In Beneath a Scarlet Sky, author Mark Sullivan has created an all-encompassing work that is reminiscent of All the Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale. Based on a true story of a forgotten hero, it is a gripping novel that raises the bar in its genre.
Set mostly in northern Italy, the book details the trials and triumphs of Pino Lella, who, as a teenager from 1943 to 1945, fought the occupying Germans — first as a mountaineer guiding Jews over the Alps to Switzerland, then as a spy posing as the driver for a Nazi general, and finally as a reluctant Italian partisan.
Despite a violent political environment that pits Italians against each other, Pino maintains his ties with family and friends and finds love with the beautiful Anna, a woman six years his senior.
Though the novel is large at 524 pages, it never feels large. In Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Sullivan tells a riveting tale that holds the reader’s attention from the start. Will Damron, narrator of the nearly 18-hour audiobook, does justice to the author’s epic work.
I would recommend the book to anyone who loves World War II history, suspense, and stories of courage.
All the stars in the universe.
This book was great, amazingly written, it’s a story about courage and personal tragedies, it’s also about love, unsung heroes, cruelty in times of war and injustice.
I really have no words to make this incredible book justice, but if you love historical fiction set in WWII, this is definitely a must read for you.
Compelling …engrossing…absorbing….exciting !
This true story, told with the fictional mastery of Mark Sullivan, centers about an unlikely hero in Italy during the Nazi occupation. From dangerous escapades to guide Jews to safety to working as a spy inside the Nazi command in Milan, this story takes you, with relentless passion, through those last critical years of WWII. Always, the hero Pino Lella, is the star. This is an exciting thriller but it is also history that will educate you. Would that the dry history books that bored me in school had been written like this !
Knowing that this is a true account of the final years of WWII makes every page all the more amazing. It reads like a page-turning novel with characters and circumstances contrived for the sake of a good story. But the research and the passion that inspire every chapter make history so real. Mark Sullivan made me truly feel the emotional conflicts of the people whose story he related.
It is an emotional ride…powerful and inspiring.
Great book, great story of the work of the resistance in Italy during WWII, particularly Pino Lella, the young boy who spied for them. The events and the characters were real. And the insight into the German generals and Mussolini as well as the catholic church in smuggling Jews over the border into Switzerland. Filled with suspense, intrigue and lots of humanity. One of my favorite books. Sullivan did a great job of telling Pino’s story as well as researching the fates of all the characters, wrapping up the whole episode of the war.
I am not one for war books, but I liked this one. I loved the characters in this novel.