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 loved this book based on true experiences. It was enlightening and facinating to read at the end of the book what happened in real life to each person. We have the book and have loaned it out to six people already. Best book I have ever read… could not put it down!!!
This is not your typical war novel. It’s based a areal life with life and military adventures and experiences. Is is also inspirational. Outstanding book passages from it still resonate in my head.
Read this book! The story of Pino Lela is amazing, heartbreaking, and incredible. The author did extensive research and it shows. Pino is a young man living in Nazi occupied Italy. He is all at once a ordinary young man and extraordinary one rising to meet the challenges he confronts. While the author has taken dramatic liberties to “fill in the gaps” of the story and give us a cohesive narrative, the reader is too taken with the Pino’s story to be concerned about those liberties. I found it fascinating to consider how many normal people like Pino must have been living in Nazi occupied Italy, France, Poland, etc. They each have stories to tell….
This is a great book to introduce an older teen (15+) to the history of WWII in an approachable way. However, I would not consider it a teen book. Read it for yourself, you won’t be sorry.
Great story
Fascinating historical novel about an Italian teenage boy who quickly grew into a young man and the amazing life he led toward the later part of WWII. Based on a true story. Author interviewed the main character and others.
Every good review of this book is true. I am on my third reading. If you enjoy historical events in novel form, this is for you. A young Italian boy caught up in World War II helping Jews escape the Nazis, becoming a spy for the Italian resistance, this kept me returning to read further every chance I got. Highly recommended.
This was a very good historical fiction novel. It was informative and the book included a photo of the real life hero, Pino Lula. The emphasis is on his life and work and not WWII…a refreshing change.
I had started this at one point then picked it back up a month later. I forgot that it was a true story until reading the epilogue at the end of the book. Just an astounding story of a young man’s resistance activities in Nazi controlled Italy.
I’ve read a lot of books this year and this is by far the best one. A beautiful true story. I was very upset to have finished it. I could have kept on reading and reading and reading. Beware when starting it. You wont want to put it down.
LOVE love love this book!
Fantastic true story
This was heavy material as it takes place during WWII. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and was in tears by the end, as if they were my family . Definitely a book I would, and have, recommended to others.
A part of WW2 I knew nothing about.
Every time I think that I have heard all the tragic stories about World War II a book like this ones comes along. I am amazed at the courage and resilience of the Italian people.
Amazing true story of a boy in Italy that did make a difference in World War 2.
I listened to this on audible and it is so beautifully written. I think I finished it in about four days. At first I thought it was fiction but later discovered that it was based on the life of a real boy named Pino Lela that risked his life to save Jews by smuggling them over the alps into Switzerland from Northern Italy. It’s one of those books that stay with you long after you finish it. I highly recommend it. Just know that you will feel changed on the inside forever.
This is another true story of how Italians helped Italian Jews during Nazi occupation of Italy during World War II. The young man in this book not only guided Jews over the Alps into safety from death by Nazis. The twists and turns of his relationship not only with the people he saved but also the German officer who engaged him as a driver turns this story into nothing short of a thriller. Looking forward to the upcoming movie. Proud to be second generation Italian with an uncle who signed up for World War II and helped free France from German occupation.
One of the best books I’ve ever read.
Engrossing, easy to read and so interesting!
Important read!!! Historical biographical, and especially relevant in today’s world!