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| Welcome to my Blog! Wander through wonderful worlds real and fictional, meet interesting people, visit exciting places and find a few good books to enjoy along the way! |
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Thank you for inviting me to write a guest post for your blog about why I decided to set my novel in Bologna. [Helen: my pleasure, Siobhan]
“The Girl from Bologna” is a standalone story and part of my “Girls from the Italian Resistance” series. The liberation of Bologna is mentioned, but not fully explored in the two other books, “The Girl from Venice” and “The Girl from Portofino”. It seemed opportune to conclude the series there.
Known as the Fat, Red, and the Learn'd City due to its rich
cuisine, red hued buildings, and left-wing politics, and being home to the
oldest university in the western world, Bologna is one of my favourite Italian
cities. I love the porticoed arcades and the historic centre with the Basilica
of San Petronio and Neptune’s fountain.
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| Basilica of San Petronio in Piazza Maggiore (Shutterstock) |
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| Neptune’s fountain with the memorial to the partisans on the wall of the building to the left © Siobhan Daiko |
When I visited the city recently with my husband and viewed
the monument to the partisans in Piazza del Nettuno. I found the photos of the
young men and women who had died for freedom during the German occupation to be
deeply moving.
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| Section of the monument to the partisans in Piazza del Nettuno, Bologna, showing the number of partisans to be 14,425 of whom 2,212 were women. 2059 fallen. 945 wounded. 6543 arrested. 2350 shot in reprisals. 829 died in Nazi camps. 22 gold bravery medals. 40 silver bravery medals. © Siobhan Daiko |
After I returned home, I started research for my novel. I discovered that Bologna suffered extensive damage during World War II. The strategic importance of the city as an industrial and railway hub connecting northern and central Italy made it a target for Allied air bombardments. The occupation of Bologna began the day after the Italian prime minister announced that Italy had switched sides in the war. Enemy tanks rolled into the city. Nazi officials hung a swastika flag from the façade of the Hotel Baglioni—the best in Bologna—and commandeered part of the first floor and a large lounge to the right of the lobby, which they converted into their administrative headquarters. Not one Italian authority turned up for a formal handover. With total political chaos there weren’t any Italian authorities at hand.
Over the next several days, the Wehrmacht put their military occupation into action. Repression and intimidation began immediately with the confiscation of automobiles, limits to bicycle transport, a curfew from 11 pm to 4 am, and restrictions on gatherings of more than three people. Worst of all, the Nazis set up transit camps for deportations and slave labour, interning deserters from the Italian army—those they hadn’t already loaded onto cattle trucks and transported to Germany.
For the first week or so of the Nazi occupation, Bolognese fascists kept themselves out of political life. But when Hitler made Mussolini the puppet ruler of La Repubblica Sociale Italiana, i fascisti bolognesi became ardent members of the Duce’s reformed anti-monarchist Republican Fascist Party. The repubblichini, as antifascists scathingly called them, started working hand in glove with the Germans.
Consequently, the city became a hotbed of urban guerrilla warfare. The more I researched, the more immersed I became in the events. What happened to the partisans, fighting both against the Nazi occupation and against the fascists in Bologna, was truly harrowing. They grouped in the city when it appeared that the Allies were on the cusp of breaking through German lines in the autumn of 1944 and were caught like sitting ducks when the Anglo-Americans halted their advance. Making my characters go through the terrible repercussions brought tears to my eyes. The actions perpetrated by the fascists against the partisans were so violent, they even sickened the German command. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, war returned to Europe while I was writing the story, rendering my writing particularly poignant.
“The Girl from Bologna” is set during two historical time periods. Alongside the monument to the partisans in Piazza del Nettuno there is another monument, listing the names and ages of those killed by a terrorist bomb planted in the railway station on 2nd August 1980. The fact that Bologna had chosen, some years later, to honour the victims in the same location where so many partisans had given their lives, led me to decide to construct the 1981 narrative around that heinous event.
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| About the Book |
By Siobhan Daiko
Bologna, Italy, 1944, and the streets are crawling with German soldiers. Nineteen-year-old Leila Venturi is shocked into joining the Resistance after her beloved best friend Rebecca, the daughter of a prominent Jewish businessman, is ruthlessly deported to a concentration camp.
In February 1981, exchange student Rhiannon Hughes arrives in Bologna to study at the university. There, she rents a room from Leila, who is now middle-aged and infirm. Leila’s nephew, Gianluca, offers to show Rhiannon around but Leila warns her off him.
Soon Rhiannon finds herself being drawn into a web of intrigue. What is Gianluca’s interest in a far-right group? And how is the nefarious head of this group connected to Leila? As dark secrets emerge from the past, Rhiannon is faced with a terrible choice. Will she take her courage into both hands and risk everything?
An evocative, compelling read, “The Girl from Bologna” is a story of love lost, daring exploits, and heart wrenching redemption.
Trigger Warnings: War crimes against women
Buy Links:
Available on #KindleUnlimited
Universal Link: viewbook.at/TGFB
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NTXCHKG
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NTXCHKG
Amazon CA:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09NTXCHKG
Amazon AU:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09NTXCHKG
Siobhan Daiko is a British historical fiction author. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband, a Havanese dog and a rescued cat. After a life of romance and adventure in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK, Siobhan now spends her time indulging her love of writing and enjoying her life near Venice.
LINKS:
Website:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/siobhandaiko
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AsolandoBooks
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/siobhan-daiko-74993651/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/siobhandaiko_asolandobooks/
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.it/SiobhanDaiko/_saved/
BookBub:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/siobhan-daiko
Amazon Author Page:
Goodreads:
Twitter Handles: @siobhandaiko @maryanneyarde
Instagram Handles: @siobhandaiko_asolandobooks @coffeepotbookclub
Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #WomensFiction #WWII
#ItalianHistorical #HistoricalRomance #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub
Tour Schedule Page:
https://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/2022/02/blog-tour-girl-from-bologna-girls-from.html
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Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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| buy from Amazon https://getbook.at/MirrorMurder |
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| Amazon: FREE ebook! |
Thank you so much for hosting the blog tour for The Girl from Bologna.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Mary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club
Thank you, my pleasure
DeleteThank you so much!!!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure
Delete