Just wonderful! The story-telling, the ramping up of tension, the weaving of the characters stories into this glorious historical thriller, rooted in truth, is spectacular. There were times I had to stop reading because I feared what was coming, but was constantly drawn back, desperate to see what happened next. Another masterpiece from Joseph O’Connor. Add it to you must-read list now

There are many true accounts of members of religious orders who help escapees and the persecuted during war, this is a tense historical thriller set against the background of wartime Nazi occupied Rome focussing on the real character of Kerry born Father Hugh O’Flaherty. Author O’Connor came across the story whilst visiting County Kerry where he was told about the priest’s heroism whilst working in Rome during WW2. Accounts indicate he may well have saved as many as 7,000 people from persecution, imprisonment and death.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (codename Golf) is a complex character who breaks the stereotype of the Catholic priest - sports loving, opera and poetry loving, motor bike riding, athletic, down to earth, amiable and outspoken with a wide range of life experiences in different countries prior to his arrival in The Vatican. One of the other characters aptly likens him to a George Raft rather than a Bing Crosby style priest “ with a touch of the Robert Mitchum about him” He is able to hide in plain sight as a member of the priesthood working within The Vatican, a neutral city state within the occupied city of Rome, from where he leads a disparate group of people posing as a choir whilst secretly running an underground resistance movement.

Alternate chapters switch from 1943 to twenty years hence when we hear versions of events in particular on a fateful Christmas Eve when the so called choir recount their plans for a great “rendimento” ( performance) across the city under the noses of the occupying Nazi forces and their cruel commandant Gestapo senior member Hauptmann.

I enjoyed the list of Dramatis Personae and the map of Rome at the front of the book. Hugh and presumably therefore O’Connor, is familiar with the backstreets and secret passages that weave across the city streets, squares, monuments and churches. Wonderful descriptions of Rome and its hidden passages and how it epitomises the vibrancy of Italian life until invasion forces the people into secrecy, danger and intrigue. The city and is itself is a character in the novel.

Hugh’s team of 7 co-conspirators in the Choir are from all walks of life and nationalities - an Irish opera singer, an Italian newspaper vendor, a British army officer and escaped POW, an Italian widowed Contessa, a journalist, and a British ambassador and his Jewish Londoner servant. O’Connor is particularly good at capturing the dialect, expressions and intonations of these different characters which really brings them to life. The Choir operate throughout the city running an Escape Line assisting, hiding, smuggling and fundraising for escaped allied prisoners of war, refugees, and the Jewish persecuted facilitating their escape from Fascist Europe.

The use of the present tense in the 1943 Rome sections gives a sense of urgency, immediacy and tension to events. This is interspersed with letters, diary entries, interviews and newspaper accounts from the various Choir members in 1963. The plot races along with us rooting for the “goodies” and as each chapter is dated and timed by the hours and minutes in a countdown towards “performance” time on Christmas Eve the tension and suspense increases towards a powerful denouement. At times though the writing style does become disjointed as we switch viewpoints, voices, tenses and time frames from chapter to chapter and later on in the novel even within the same chapter. Sometimes the story is told in the third person and at other times in the first by various of the choir members. Sometimes we are in 1943 and sometimes in 1963.

There are many powerful scenes and set pieces - in particular Hugh’s first visit to an internment camp where British soldiers are almost starved and subject to brutality and mistreatment . This scene though, like others, did read at times a bit like a Boy’s Own Adventure however. Would a Priest have dared to challenge the camp commandant so directly by calling him “vermin”. In general throughout there was the inevitable stereotyping of the “goodie”s against the evil Germans.

This is a well researched, fast paced and gripping historical novel set in a world of war and persecution that resonates powerfully with the reader today. Some critics have found the dual timelines and multiple viewpoints confusing, disjointed or a distraction from the main plot but I for one will be looking out for the second in The Rome Escape Line series when it is published. Thank you to The Reading Agency and Vintage Books for sending our Hythe Book Group copies to read and review.

Based on true events, loved the descriptions of Rome and the little wisdoms dropped by the characters troughout the story. It will stay with me for a while. I listened to the audio version, which is done brilliantly with people reading in character's dialects and accents. Absolutely loved it.

My first Joseph O'Connor book, courtesy of @Pigeonhole, bit certainly not my last.
The writing and descriptions in his book are exquisite. You feel what the characters feel, you worry for their safety.
I knew nothing of the Rome Escape Line before reading this book and, although it is a book of fiction, the characters are from real life. The only name changed was the German officer called Hauptmann, who in reality was called Herbert Kappler.
The book tells the story of the Choir, an unlikely grouping of friends, led by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a Catholic priest from Ireland.
Through their bravery and meticulous planning, they saved the lives of many Jews and allied POWs, when Rome was occupied by the Nazis in 1943.
The story is so emotional and has left me wanting to find out more about these heroes.
A brilliant book which was read in daily staves via #Pigeonhole.