At his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943.
The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal. Awkward fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he's waited his whole life to share.
When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches - earning him a week's suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness . . .
Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather's life: when Paolo's support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city's underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can't stop reading - but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all.
David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, The Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than twenty-five novels, including his Rome-based Nic Costa series which has been published in fifteen languages, and his Amsterdam-based series featuring detective Pieter Vos. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series, The Killing. He lives near Canterbury in Kent.
Title: The Garden of Angels
Author: Hewson, David
ISBN: 9780727850119
Binding:
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Publication Date: 2021-01-29
Number of Pages: 320
Weight: 0.5402 kg
Hewson expertly balances tense action and thoughtful emotion. Fans of character-driven WWII thrillers will want to check this out * Publishers Weekly *
Hewson displays the gifts that distinguish the Costa series: the ability to bring texture and humanity to multiple characters and to explore significant moments in history through the microcosm of those characters' lives * Booklist *
THE GARDEN OF ANGELS is a unique achievement: a thriller that is a pageturner, yet is also evocative and haunting. Hewson writes with both power and grace and is a true master of his craft. This is a book that stays with you long after you have finished reading * Craig Russell, international bestselling author *
Many of Hewson's books have been set in Italy, but this one-off set mostly in German WW2-occupied Venice must surely rank amongst his best ... With a gallery of wonderful characters on both sides of the fence and never flinching from the atrocities committed by all parties, this is a gripping and wonderfully written tale of pathos and heroism with a wonderful final twist that raises the book to a whole other level * Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time *
Full of layers, like a Russian nesting doll . A good read for those who love their World War II thrillers with a bit of history included. Followers of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mysteries may appreciate the atmosphere and the intrigue * Library Journal *
Readers will be gripped and hold fast until the shocking end * Publishers Weekly on Devil's Fjord *
Readers of Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin will find this gripping * Library Journal on The Flood *
Hewson spins an engrossing tale * Booklist on The Flood *
Hewson's own elegant prose style perfectly captures the mood of the story ... A splendid book * Booklist Starred Review of The Killing *
