For Fans of "The Nightingale"

For those of us who devoured "The Nightingale", Mark Sullivan's "Beneath a Scarlet Sky" will take you on a riveting two year journey in Italy during the Nazi occupation in World War II to show us that even in the darkest of times, there are heroes in the shadows, and beauty and hope can still flourish.

While technically a historical fiction, this based on a true story novel follows Pino Lella, a seventeen year-old boy living in Milan with his family when the bombings begin. When his family sends him to the Alps to be safe and far from the bombings, he struggles with his fate and not being with his family. But Pino soon finds that his exile may also be the salvation he needs to find his purpose in this war.

When Pino is forced to return to Milan, he is told to go against everything he has come to believe from his time in the Alps, but his begrudging decision leads him to a unique opportunity to possibly help put an end to the war. "Beneath a Scarlet Sky" tells the unbelievable story of Pino standing witness to the horrors of the war, his fight in the shadows, and a lasting love.

Sullivan's telling of Pino's story is suspenseful, but also beautiful and heart-felt. "Beneath a Scarlet Sky" contains all the elements of a truly great novel - heroism, love, suspense. But do skip the author's preface, as I found that this distracted from Pino's story and did nothing to set the tone of the book.

I struggled to put Pino's story down, and became so immersed in his journey that I couldn't believe that this story had stayed hidden for so many years, which makes me wonder: "what other heroic stories from World War II have gone untold?"