Author Mark Sullivan said he was “at the lowest point of my life”. Coming close to taking his life one early evening, he took a pause for the sake of his family. A few hours later he learned about an Italian war story that was hardly believable. Sullivan called Pino Lella a few times and eventually persuaded Pino to see him in person. Sullivan flew to Italy. This was the first of many trips he made to Italy over a decade and the result is this incredible book, “Beneath A Scarlet Sky”.

The story starts in June 1943, right in the throes of World War II, in Milan. Pino has had a privileged life and is quite the ladies’ man. He is now 17 years old, just met the gorgeous Anna, and Allied bombs have destroyed his family home. Pino’s family send him off to the Northern mountains of Italy, near a little ski town called Madesimo, to live with an old friend Father Re at Casa Alpina, where another 40 boys, including his younger brother Mimo, have found refuge from the dangers of war.

Father Re sets Pino the immense task of hiking solo in the surrounding snowy mountains almost every day, about which Sullivan writes in such a vivid way that one would think he had been tasked with this physically challenging feat. While Pino is happy to have escaped the bombs of war in Milan, he becomes proud to be part of Father Re’s Underground Railroad that’s helping Jews escape over the Alps. Pino is chosen to be the one who guides these Jews through the treacherous alpine terrain, oftentimes risking his own life as he ensures the safety of those entrusted to his care. The daily nail-biting expeditions, eloquently described in Sullivan’s prose, are forever etched in my mind.

Eventually, it is time for Pino to return to Milan, but his family once again dictate his fate, forcing him to join the Germans, in order to protect his life. Now 18 years old, circumstance lands him the job of personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, and Pino ends up informally working as a spy for the Allies, which makes his seeming betrayal easier to stomach. Despite the horrendous experience of living within a war, which, aside from smell and sound, Sullivan captures in graphic detail, Pino is happy. He has found the love of his life, Anna, who happens to be the maid of General Leyers’ mistress.

While we all know the outcome of World War II, Pino’s story does not end the way one might expect. Sullivan will keep you on your proverbial toes right up to the last page of this book, pulling on every heart string and emotion deep within. Truly one of my favourite reads of all time.

P.S. I read this book at the start of Summer, but I’ve been so busy, I’ve not had time to write. I shall endeavour to get back to blogging on a regular basis now.