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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This is an incredible true story about a brave young Italian who help people escape out of Italy to Switzerland during the second World War. You won’t be able to put it down.
Great characters! Pino and his family are all war hero’s. Moving read of WWII, in the heart of war torn Italy. A lot of strength and endurance and a little romance.
I read the book and dreamt of the plot and characters. Definitely recommend.
Very interesting true story that takes place in Italy during the WWII occupation by Germany. Gritty and heartbreaking and real. The main character was about 18 years old at the time and is still living. Fantastic book!
Great. Read in one sitting. Loved the historical references and the followup of the real character’s at the end.
Absolutely recommend this beautifully written book. Facts never learned about in school, this shines a sharp light on the hardships of the Italian people pulled in so many directions. So many of all faiths were torn from the warmth of their cultures to the horror, bombings, starvation of war. Faith can sustain people even in the darkest times is a message worth taking from Pino.
This was one of the best ww2 books I have read this year! It was a page turner from early on in the book. Was informative about what it was like in Italy during ww2.
Normally not a book I would pick up. I was pleasantly surprised by the lyrical way in which the author wrote in a very dark point in our history. It takes place in Italy 1944. The main character is interviewed for the book creating wonderful authenticity. It made all my “problems” appear petty compared to what Pino) saw. I listened to the Audible version of a Kindle First book.
I would greatly recommend this book to anyone!
Wonderful characters and inspiring story
A must-read!
This book was a sad, painful, fun, joyous read.
Excellent book! Based on a true story. Sad- yet realistic! Fantastic read!
4.5/5 stars
“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.”
A young Italian boy is tasked with guiding Jews safely to Switzerland through deadly mountains passes in Italy at the request of a Catholic Priest. He is then forced to join the Nazi Organization Todt as a driver for the second most powerful Nazi in all of Italy. He is working as a spy but friends and family think him a traitor and he is unable to tell them otherwise.
This story reminds us that even in our darkest hours we can find love, keep faith, and carry on.
“The best thing is to grieve for the people you loved and lost, and then welcome and love the new people life puts in front of you.”
“When we’re apart, I feel like all the music stops.”
“To be young and in love. Isn’t it remarkable that something like that can happen in the middle of a war? It says something about the inherent goodness of life, despite all the evil we’ve seen.”
“By opening our hearts, revealing our scars, we are made human and flawed and whole.”
This book has become one of my favorite books. It’s interesting to see the relationship between Mark Sullivan and Pino Lella. The characters were amazing and you were able to see them grow up in the war and the people the war made them. The ending was completely tragic and had a twist that left my jaw-dropping. Definitely recommend.
True story. Very well written. Our book club loved the rich characters and story line.
A fantastic WWII story from an original perspective I’ve not read before. Wonderfully written!
I didn’t think I would like this book as well as I did! I was so glad I picked it up and read it! I laughed and cried in this book. It was interesting to me to see his life during the war through his eyes. I would definitely recommend this book.
This book was recommended to my husband who isn’t a reader, so I took it to give it a try. Wow, I was blown away. Great read and oh, a true story! Would have loved to meet him.
I don’t know how to write a review of a book that I really enjoy and that had my emotions all over the place, I always try to express everything that I love and what exactly the book made me feel but I always feel like my reviews come short to what I experience during the story and Beneath A Scarlett Sky is one of them. I can’t stop thinking about Pino, I can’t even start other books because I want to keep listening to Will Damron’s voice as Pino, I’m even tempted to start the whole audiobook again because this was breathtaking, heartbreaking, and the world shattered but as well the story of Pino left me with so many things not only in my heart but also in my soul.
Beneath A Scarlett Sky is the true story of Pino Lella a young boy whose life change so drastically when his parents suggested him to work for the Nazis so he somehow will be safe and also protected but life wasn’t easy during those times and nothing was ever as planned, life threw a very hardball to Pino and made him grew up very fast, the things he saw, he felt and experience are soul-shattering, I still can’t imagine the feelings and the emotions Pino was going through every single situation, no matter how much harder he tried life was throwing ball after ball at him really bringing him down.
Pino was in constant stress and fear as he was working for the enemies, he knew that if he got caught his life and the life of his entire family will be jeopardized, he had to stay quiet even if that meant hurting the people you love, even if that meant enduring the harsh thoughts and words of his best friend and brother. I really don’t know how Pino did all of this, fighting a real-world and also fighting a war inside of him.. everything he saw and the experience was too much he really deserved so much more.
Beneath A Scarlett Sky is one of those stories that every character makes you feel like there is hope, there is strength and there is that faith that everything will be good sooner or later, but also we encounter characters that were so evil and didn’t have any heart not even empathy for the suffering of thousands
When I started reading this book I was very angry and I was fighting with every evil character, I guess that’s a natural reaction for any human being, to get angry about everything that was going on in that time, the evilness the Nazis were capable off, but the more I read, the more I heard, the more I got to meet Pino, especially when he was watching and living the same horrors coming from the “good people” the resistance is when I realized that violence only generates more violence and that will never make us better than the aggressor it will only show that we’re made the same way and that we’re capable of doing the same atrocities if we were in another circumstance or in another situation.
My favorite part of the book was the love between Ana and Pino, it was beautiful, I love how all started and it always felt very intense, very deep, and very magical, I’m sure they’re together right now reliving their true love.
I know life is not a movie and we do not always get the ending we are looking for but I’m glad Pino told his story and shared with all of us, he was and is a true hero and I hope he finds that peace that he was robed from, he deserves so much more.
Beneath A Scarlet Sky, it took me a lot of time to pick up this book and I have to say that I’m glad I finally did because not only I love it so much but it has become one of my favorite books of all times, a story like Pinos is a story that will change your life forever and it has changed mine.
This is one of the most powerful and moving books I have read for ages.
Part fiction, but mainly biographical, the story of Pino Lella’s two years during World War II in Italy will stay with me for a very long time.
Brilliantly written and researched, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Well done. Exceptional.