Eternal

After struggling with Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline, I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy Eternal. I loved Eternal. Reading Loyalty, I probably learned more about Sicily and the Mafia than I learned about Rome during WWII, which is mostly what Eternal is about. 

My first inclination would be that it helped that I was listening to Eternal and I could really enjoy the dialog (the actors that read the novel were wonderful). But the dialogue in Eternal was so much richer than the dialogue in Loyalty. The characters were better developed. I really can't say enough good things about it. 

It most definitely did help that my husband was on board to listen to this 19 hour audiobook while on a recent 1,300-mile road trip. He might have enjoyed this one as much as I did, which isn't often the case. Listening to this story was the perfect preparation for our upcoming trip to Italy.

The first stop on our trip will be to Rome. When we were last in Rome, in 2010, we were at the Trevi Fountain. Sort of. We couldn't get near the Trevi Fountain. I said, "That's okay. I don't care if I'm not close enough to toss a coin in. I don't plan to come back to Rome anyway." Here it is, 13 years later, and we're heading back to Rome. The focus of the Rome stay is on Jewish Rome. We're staying just across the river from Trastevere where much of the action takes place. We're going on a walking tour of the Jewish ghetto where a lot of Eternal took place. We're also going on a Jewish tour of the Vatican (assuming I can actually get tickets to the Vatican - who knew that would be so difficult!) and a small but important part of Eternal took place at the Vatican. Now I can't wait to see all that we listened about.

I'm just going to copy the synopsis of the novel directly from Goodreads.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment.

I really can't say enough good things about this novel. If you're interested about Rome during WWII and the life of Jews in Rome in the years leading up to and during WWII, I strongly recommend this.