Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel

For some (illogical) reason I thought this book wouldn't be great, since it was priced at $1.99. and I've read lots of Nazi/WWII books this year, but the author's background comments prompted me to download it, and boy am I glad I did. This is a whale of a book, one you will get hooked on and read it well until the night until you're finished. It is a fantastic book in so many ways. One, you will learn about WWII in Italy, which not many historical novels cover. Second, you will be treated to a magnificent story based on the true life experiences of "Pino" Lella, who until this book was written was an unknown hero, and follow his amazing story throughout the latter part of the war, when Germany "occupied" Italy (the Italy fascist leadership, led by Mussolini, was aligned with Hitler). Pino is a nondescript 17 year old, son of upper middle class parents, whose primary focus in life (as most 17 year old young men) was to have a good time with his friends and begin to enjoy the companionship of young women. As events unfold, Pino is nearing the point when he must take part in the war (enlist or get drafted/conscripted). If he joins the Nazi's, he will be sent to the Russian front where the survival rate is about 50%, so his parents encourage him to join the "Organization Todt", where Italian men stayed in Italy supporting the German war effort in building trucks, weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to aid the Nazis. Pino is vehemently opposed to helping the Nazis, whom he despises, but his father convinces him by telling him he can do more good as an "observer" (spy), passing inside information back to the Italian partisans resisting the German army. As it turns out, he has acquired expert driving skills, and through serendipitous events he is assigned as the "driver" for German General Hans Leyer, the #2 Nazi leader in Italy, with close ties to Hitler. Much of the book details his travels and service for General Leyer, and he is able to pass valuable intelligence back to the partisans. General Leyer has lodgings in Milan, and Pino meets and falls in love with the General's Italian maid, Anna. That story line, their romance, is well written as well. As it begins to become clear that the Allies are making significant progress, General Leyer realizes that Germany will be defeated, and he begins to put in place records that will portray him as an American sympathizer, while still dutifully supplying needed equipment and food to the Nazi war effort. No spoilers here, but the end game in the book is extremely well-written, and through both tragedy and the joy of finally freeing Italy of the Nazis we have an eyewitness account of how the retreating Nazis, their fascist collaborators, and the partisans ultimately play significant roles in the final months and days of the war. The author is a true master (while relatively unknown, he is a frequent collaborator with James Patterson on many of his bestseller books). You will not laugh, but you may smile, and you will certainly be saddened. This is an epic saga that is movie worthy, and I just found out prior to writing this review that the movie has already been cast and will be released (most likely) in 2018. I loved this book. It was educational while also being a moving and compelling story. You will enjoy it on many levels, as I did, and I highly recommend you add it to your reading list. Again, one of the best books I've read this year, and in this genre, one of the best books, period.

I chose this book because I knew nothing about Italy's part in WWII. What an eye-opener this book is. It reads like a novel and each part is so incredible. Yet each piece is verifiable. So this reader felt like a part of the story. Smoothly written, and definitely a page turner. I chose wisely, and I will recommend it. Thank you, Mark Sullivan. This is a nasterpiece.

IMO this is a four star book. Why not five? One star is being deducted because some of the prose was just too stiff. Other reviewers have given examples of this. In spite of that there is much to like about the book. First is the story. It is not my place as a reviewer to assume the truth of Pino Lella's exploits. After all, living here in the USA, we have not lived through a war like World War II which raged all over Europe so we do not know what we would be capable of under such circumstances. The author, Mark Sullivan, did an excellent job of putting Mr. Lella's exploits into the proper perspective while painting the war as the ugly event it was. It is not surprising that TV picked this up for a series. As to the prose, there are places where's it's spectacular and shows rather than tells, i.e., the little fingers/boxcar episode. That memory is with me still. There are other such incidents which make the story stand out and leaves the reader with vivid examples of how awful the war was on inhabitants in Italy where Mr. Lella lived. As to Mr. Lella's life experiences and the people he met after the war ended, those also fit into his lifestyle. After all most car showrooms are for Fords, Chevy's and other such models the average person purchases. Driving and then selling high-end sports cars would indeed put Mr. Lella in touch with those who could afford to buy such cars. Being a ski instructor would also expose him to people who could afford to ski! It is understandable why many like this book so much. I'm glad I read it and much of Mr. Lella's story stays with me still. Overall, recommended for those who like a good story for the story.

Beneath A Scarlet Sky I am a senior citizen and all my life I have been interested in history—and especially of WWII. I read everything I see about the war and I have probably watched all the movies that have ever been made about WWII but nothing I have seen or read compares to this book! When reading history you just get the facts whereas in this book you see with the eyes of the people who were there and who were experiencing all the horrors and heartaches. At times it was very hard to read this story because it was so hard to get your head around that so many people were soulless and just pure evil. The story starts out about a very young boy, less than 18 years old, who began helping people to escape to Switzerland. When I first started reading this story I thought it was going to be like the movie, “Sound of Music.” But as the story progresses, Pino Lella, the young man who this story is about, is pushed into joining the German army by his parents. He and his parents are not for the Germans but his parents are afraid that if he does not volunteer to join that on his 18th birthday the Germans will drag him into the army and send him to the Russian front to fight—where over half of the Italian fighters usually die. They were hoping that by joining he would be able to sit out the war and do maybe office work or something that mundane. Things seemed to be going the way the parents hoped it would until one day Pino stopped to help to fix a German General’s car. When the general realized that Pino fixed his car and knew enough to be a car mechanic, he instantly commanded that Pino become his driver. Pino could not say no since he was part of the German army now. Later in the story he was asked by his uncle to help spy on the movement of the German army since he was in the perfect position to see and hear exactly what the Germans were up to. My heart really went out to Pino as he gathered information for the allies because all his friends and realities thought he was Nazis and treated him as if he was a traitor. He could tell no one he was a spy and was on their side because it was too dangerous to tell anyone. But still my heart ached for him because it hurt him so bad. By being the driver for General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most powerful commanders, Pino was privy to a lot of helpful information to feed to the allies. It was why he was employed by the general that he re-met a girl he had a crush on. Anna, the girl, was a maid to the general’s mistress. Pino and Anna fell in love after some time had passed and they got to know one another better. From then on the story gets more intense and suspenseful as Pino tries to do the job he needs to do as a spy and also to keep alive. As the story wound down I could not quit reading until I got to the end because everything got super suspenseful as the war was starting to come to a close. It’s hard to imagine how Pino and so many others survived the war with their minds intact. Toward the end I just cried—it was so sad & heart breaking on so many levels. One of the things that I really liked about the book was that after the story ended the author updated you on what happened to all the main characters later in life. To show you how much I thought of this story, I bought a hardback copy and had it sent to a family member who is a vet. And then I ordered a audio CD to play in the car so my husband can hear the story. My husband hates to read but will watch a movie or listen to a CD—I know he will really be interested in this story once I start playing it. He is a retired veteran of the army with 25 years of service and is interested in anything that is about the military. So if you like knowing about history, you will like this book. Next to “Benghazi” this is the best book that I own.

Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan Review 5/4/17 Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours. Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders. Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share. Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love. What did I like? I love history, mystery, intrigue and romance… all my favorites all in one book. This was such an interesting book and some of the history of course most of us know. I was so intrigued with this story that I did a little research on my own and saw the work that the author put into the telling of Pino’s story. I can tell you that I was pulled in every minute and had such a tough time putting this book down. I have heard the same remarks from several of my friends that have also read the book. What will you like? Even though this book has a little liberal use in the story you will see the story from a unique perspective that will have you holding your breath. The horrors of the time are all spelled out, so I want to warn you but it is told in a way that we can all understand what Pino and all the other members of his family went through. I know the different things that my dad told me about the time that he was there and saw several photos that gave me nightmares at the time and still haunt me. This story really brought the things that I already knew and the research that I did on my own, plus the discussions that I have had about this book to a new light. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest of that period. The work and effort that was put into the book shows in every page and tells Pino’s story that no one has heard before.

The Preface is enough to still your speeding modern mind to get how this author needs to fill you in on the circumstances about his life when the tattered outline of this odyssey was shown to him & how researching this true-to-life memoir swallowed him whole & saved his own life. In 1944 the hero of this tale was on the brink of manhood, ready to leave school & get on w/his life when the German army finally invaded his home town & their lives, their law & order, their ruler Il Duce & everyone's dreams & hopes came to a standstill. Caught between the proverbial rock & hard place, ordinary working Milanese & their children were waiting the stalled Allied advance north from Sicily as told over forbidden wirelesses via the BBC. They were also learning how to survive when Nazis & their attending Wermacht Army rolled in & co-opted all living places, food & supplies. Along with all the dramas in hotels & apartments with mistresses & maids, parents & siblings there were the ever-present spies & collaborators. This is a novel recounting the truly remembered adventures & feelings of teenager Pino Lella as told by the 90+ year-old survivor of those last 2 crazy years of The War when he was young, healthy, a brilliant skier & mountain climber who then had to enlist only to get wounded on his first foray & while on medical leave Fate chose him to become a German general's driver in a world gone mad as the Allies pounded their way north forcing the Germans into a destructive retreat. This was an all-round rousing read: held my breath a lot; chuckled some & wept up a storm. I have a feeling this will be Mark Sullivan's best-remembered tale cuz he brings Pino Lella to life in a poetic, heroic fashion; a lad in love w/music, cars & girls who gets to hear the most sorrowful of dirges & the most uplifting of arias; he falls in love w/a fleeting stranger & then starts mid-winter mountain climbing & skiing to take city Jews to freedom, & the music follows him there too. He learns to drive his car mechanic friend's loaner Italian autos; his heart breaks as he watches his family & friends struggle & his city crumble & his life tumble into a pit of despair. The real adventure is that in his travels with his general Fate is giving him all the information he needs to pass on via his uncle to Partisans up in the mountains who harass & confound the invaders at the end of their tether, resources & reign. On these travels all over northern Italy Pino bears witness to hidden tunnels filled with a host of grey ghost slaves preparing underground factories, munitions dumps & wonders for which he has no names, all of which he will pass on once back in Milan. All one breathless blink from discovery. It was hard enough being in the company of a German general who praised his work, his mastery of the automobile, who trusted his translations of Italian into French it was, however, far worse watching his compatriots scrabble to survive, always endangered & his lifetime friends shunning him as a coward for not picking up a weapon. This young man must have burned out his adrenal glands well B4 he was 19 while guiding Italian Jews over the Alps to freedom & then still a year-and-a-half B4 VE Day go on, never sleeping regularly, the emotional roller-coaster never stopping: finding courage, seduced by excitement, warned by memories of horrific slaughters... & then he meets the maid to his general's mistress & that first love becomes his sacred oasis of music & joy & sensuality as the pace of his general's inspections as the Allies & Germans battle over his homeland demolishing untold castles on hills, ancient cities & monasteries filled with great art. In that final Spring of The War a fever overtakes everyone: the sights, sounds, smells, tastes of war fill Pino up as his general orders repeated drives to one particular place on the border along the Brenner Pass into Austria & Pino suspects his general is shipping gold bars out for his escape. The End of this fine saga reaches its climax amid mis-information & bad timing. All falls B4 Pino's eyes & his heart & spirit are broken when he learns he has been played by both sides: his general & his country. I'm so glad Sullivan gave us an update as to where everyone we met were by the turn of this century cuz it leaves the reader knowing an eager beaver of a spirit had not worked in vain, had grown immeasurably & gone on to live as ordinary life as anyone who lived thru such times could. A profoundly validating account of one teenager's Coming of Age in a Time of War. I was thrilled, entranced, filled with amore & doused with sorrow & all through I could hear the music to Pino Lello's life. This one's a keeper, very well done!

What an incredible story. I didn't think I'd find a book that could top off Nightingale, but this is the one did. Pino and his family's involvement in the resistance and their strength and courage was heroic. It's a sad ending to see how Pino's life took a turn but seeing everything he did, the risks he took, the challenges he came across, and how he managed to pull himself out of every twist in turn was inspiring. I'm in awe of his story and highly recommend to everyone who's interested in the true stories of WW2. A lot of the stories I've read took place in France and England but none in Italy. Don't hesitate to pick up this book just get it

This book was hard for me to get through. It was nice to learn about WW2 in Italy because so much focus is on other parts of Europe . I am glad I made it through the end to find out that it was the telling of actual events and with real people.

best book I have read in a long time, could not put it down well worth the read.

A good and fast reading to a well paced history. I fully recommend this book for a good read. I'm not sure if it's an historical acuarate book but surely it's a good tale.

A genuine telling of a true story, told in a way that transports you back to the past. Emotional, eye-opening and tragic all at the same time. A must read.

A very interesting book - I enjoyed it a lot. Already read it too times. A gripping tale of love, war and resiliance in world war 2 (and apperantly real story?).

I was torn in two by this book. I wanted the story to continue ... I wanted it to end! I wanted to find out more about Pino’s life but I also have a “to be read” list that is just growing. I found this book to be a riveting page turning historical novel. I highly recommend reading it. Put it on your “Read me first list”. Fabulously written by Mark Sullivan who portrayed real life people as characters. The story begins in Milan, 1943, where the Nazis continued their advance in conquering Europe. The story revolves around 17 year old Giuseppe, “Pino”, a typical adolescent who finds himself joining an underground railway. The railway helped Jews and others escape over the Alps into safer areas. When Pino turns 18 his parents, in order to protect him, forced him to join the German Army. This prevented him from being conscripted by the Germans and sent to fight the Russians on the Eastern Front. He wound up in Italy as the personal driver to General Hans Leyers who was Adolf Hitler's personal left hand man. This was the opportunity for him to become a spy, inside the German High Command, for the Allies. The fact that most of the characters were based on real people lends credibility and excitement to the read. If you enjoy WWII historical novels, this is definitively a must read!