Early One Morning, Virginia Baily
Early One Morning, Virginia Baily
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Early One Morning

Author: Virginia Baily

Narrator: Jilly Bond

Unabridged: 12 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2015


Synopsis

Two women's decision to save a child during WWII will have powerful reverberations over the years.

Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family. Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.

Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.

Reviews

In the beginning I was heartbroken and uplifted in the same moment by the depth of the bravery of two women who know each other only by a stare and and an understanding and then a silent agreement - one of the women would give her 7 year old son to the other . It's 1943 and the Nazi's are rounding u......more

Goodreads review by Katie

Disappointing. This struck me as hovering uncertainly between a literary novel and a commercial page turner. Ultimately it didn’t work for me as either. The premise promises much – Chiara Ravello rescues a young Jewish boy who is about to be carted off by the Nazis in the Rome ghetto. But the struct......more

Goodreads review by Menia

B.R.A.CE 2018 8/37 ένα βιβλίο από τις εκδόσεις Ίκαρος 3,5 αστεράκια είχε αρκετά σημεία που μακρηγορούσε αλλά στο σύνολο μου άρεσε......more


Quotes

"From the broken Jewish ghetto and dusky countryside of occupied Italy during WWII to the bustling Trastevere cafes of Rome in the 1970s, Virginia Baily offers an affecting contemplation of the past, personal identity, and the complexity and diversity of human bonds. Early One Morning is the sort of book you can't put down and then stays with you, like the best of journeys, long after it's finished."—Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest

"Early One Morning heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction, with a story that is instantly engaging, and characters that effortlessly lift from the page and are rendered so rich and full that they wrap themselves around you and refuse to let go. Beautifully written and emotionally taut, Virginia Baily's Early One Morning is a powerhouse of a debut."—Jason Hewitt, author of The Dynamite Room

"Early One Morning isn't just an incandescent novel, but the rarest of reading experiences, offering a view both wrenching and luminous of how love pushes us past what we're capable of, and somehow-impossibly-reclaims us when we're long past saving. Utterly magnificent."—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

"Wonderful.... I was completely inside it from the first pages, just that delicious (rare) feeling of knowing you're in safe hands, this writer isn't going to make a mess of anything, or forfeit your trust or your belief. It managed to be so witty and dry and true.... Vividly intelligent, gripping and moving and alive."—Tessa Hadley, author of Clever Girl