''The Girl from Venice'' is a 2016 historical fiction novel by American author

Martin Cruz Smith Martin Cruz Smith (born November 3, 1942) is an American mystery novelist. He is best known for his nine-novel series (to date) on Russian investigator Arkady Renko, who was first introduced in 1981 with '' Gorky Park''. Early life and educ ...

. The novel details the encounter and subsequent relationship between Innocenzo (Cenzo) Vianello, a fisherman from

Pellestrina Pellestrina is an island in northern Italy, forming a barrier between the southern Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea, lying south west of the Lido. The island is long and has since the eighteenth century been bounded to its seaward side b ...

, and Giulia Silber, daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, and is set in early 1945.

Plot

The novel takes place during the weeks before the collapse of the

Republic of Salò The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

and the

death of Benito Mussolini The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by an Italian partisan in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in ...

. While fishing at night, Cenzo rescues from the water Giulia, who was fleeing from the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. Giulia had been hiding with her family in a hospital, but their location and identity were betrayed, and she swims the Venetian Lagoon to escape. Cenzo's pastoral life soon becomes quite complicated as he tries to help her leave Italy.

Publication history

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Reception

Critics were generally positive. Dennis Drabelle, reviewing for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', called it an "engaging new novel". Bethanne Patrick, for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, felt the plot was simple, but the novel was well written, stating that "everything is predictable, and yet nothing is stale" and "it will also serve as a tonic to those who are weary of terribly complex plots requiring flow charts and genealogies". However,

Charles Finch Charles Finch (born 1980) is an American author and literary critic. He has written a series of mystery novels set in Victorian era England, as well as literary fiction and numerous essays and book reviews. Life and career Finch was born in N ...

, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', called it "very, very bad" and full of

Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fi ...

-like clichés about war: "every gesture of midcentury Romanticism in “The Girl From Venice” is a received one, repackaged and presented as the most profound wisdom".

References

External links

Reviews

* * * * * * * 2016 American novels Novels by Martin Cruz Smith Fiction set in 1945 Novels set in the 1940s Novels set in Venice Simon & Schuster books {{2010s-hist-novel-stub