War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944 - Softcover

Origo, Iris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782272658 ISBN 13: 9781782272656

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2017

Synopsis

The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, with a new introduction by writer and social historian Virginia Nicholson, and stunning rediscovered photographs

At the height of the Second World War, Italy was being torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the eventual Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman - born in England, married to an Italian - kept a record of daily life in a country at war. Iris Origo's compellingly powerful diary, War in Val d'Orcia, is the spare and vivid account of what happened when a peaceful farming valley became a battleground.

At great personal risk, the Origos gave food and shelter to partisans, deserters and refugees. They took in evacuees, and as the front drew closer they faced the knowledge that the lives of thirty-two small children depended on them. Origo writes with sensitivity and generosity, and a story emerges of human acts of heroism and compassion, and the devastation that war can bring.

About this title

Review

It is hard to belive that the popular Italian region of Tuscany, or Chiantishire as it is known these days, was, just 40 years ago, a no-man's land fought over by conflicting armies and ideologies. But British-born writer and wife of an Italian Marchese Iris Origo kept a diary during the Second World War, and has left behind her a compelling account of those turbulent times. Even while German troops were occupying her house, she wrote at night about her valiant attempts to shelter refugee children, burying her diary in the garden each morning. What makes this elegantly written testament so enduringly powerful is Origo's bravery in secretly taking in escaped Allied soldiers, and her modesty--she was too "busy" to be afraid. She also reveals a clear-sighted understanding of the peasants' desperate situation: "Profoundly disillusioned, cynical, tired, fully conscious that more suffering and privations still lie ahead, they are a defeated nation--and the only universal incentive still left is that of self-preservation." Origo is the exception--fearlessly involved in distributing illicit aid, she ran the gamut of German bullets. Essentially, though, hers was a personal war--that of compassion and humanity against politically motivated invaders. -- Lilian Pizzichini

Review

'A remarkably moving document that, like the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war' -- New York Times

'A compelling story of heroism [and] compassion' -- Washington Post

'A remarkable war diary' -- Telegraph

'It is jolting to recall, through Origo's sober and self-effacing prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944' -- Financial Times

'Relates in vivid detail the experiences of civilians who had the terrible misfortune to find themselves pinned between battling armies... beyond doubt a minor masterpiece' -- Washington Post

'A welcome rediscovery - evoking a unique, strange moment in civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy' -- Kirkus Reviews

'A masterpiece of reportage about the simultaneous world war and civil war that ravaged Italy 70 years ago' -- New York Times

'Superb' --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

'Origo was a remarkable writer, with a clear, engaging style, a mind steeped in history and a scholarship, but alive always to the nuances and subtleties of human relationships. The hope is that [Pushkin's republication of her work] bring her a new generation of readers' --TLS

'In her biographies, she was able to write precisely on the cusp between the two cultures, turning her work into a bridge of interpretation and understanding' --Tessa Hadley, London Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1782272658
• ISBN 13: 9781782272656
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320