Emma's Review: The Tuscan Secret by Angela Petch

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Anna is distraught when her beloved mother, Ines, passes away. She inherits a box of papers, handwritten in Italian and yellowed with age, and a tantalising promise that the truth about what happened during the war lies within.

The diaries lead Anna to the small village of Rofelle, where she slowly starts to heal as she explores sun-kissed olive groves, and pieces together her mother’s past: happy days spent herding sheep across Tuscan meadows cruelly interrupted when World War Two erupted and the Nazis arrived; fleeing her home to join the Resistenza; and risking everything to protect an injured British soldier who captured her heart. But Anna is no closer to learning the truth: what sent Ines running from her adored homeland?

When she meets an elderly Italian gentleman living in a deserted hamlet, who flinches at her mother’s name and refuses to speak English, Anna is sure he knows more about the devastating secret that tore apart her mother’s family. But in this small Tuscan community, some wartime secrets were never meant to be uncovered…

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Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Tuscan Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.

Angela Petch's novel The Tuscan Secret opens with a brief but powerful and descriptive prologue detailing the brutal conflict of World War Two and how it brought such cruelty and torture to so many. It was a time of great danger and loss of life and this story focuses on how one family dealt with the impact of world wide events in their little village in Italy. A quote at the beginning says 'How lonely is youth which is over far too soon. Grab your happiness while you may. There is no certainty in tomorrow'. These words couldn't be more apt for the themes of the book and for how the story develops. This is a dual time-line story which I love and we delve back and forth between the modern day -1999- and the war years.

We learn of the past through recollections written in a diary but as we move further through the book one does forget it is a diary entry you are reading as you become swept away in the story. Admittedly, it took me some time to get into The Tuscan Secret. I think it took some time to find its rhythm and pace and to establish the setting and characters. It was only around the half way point that I felt the story coming together and links and connections becoming established. I definitely think the later half was far stronger than the first and overall this did show that the author has a talent for writing historical fiction as this was inspired by true events but at the same time I feel there is even greater things to come from Angela Petch.

In February 1999, Anna is at a crossroads. She has lost her job in an estate agency and also her mother has recently passed away. She wonders what will come next? What should her next move be? Is now the time to grab any opportunity that may present itself or should she sit still and ponder? Her mother has left her some money and a collection of papers. Her older siblings Harry and Jane have been left property and money but Anna really has no deep and lasting connection to them as growing up they were always significantly older and it was almost like two separate families emerged.

Anna desperately misses her mother but their relationship was never an easy one as her mother never openly talked about her previous life in Italy before she arrived in England having married Jim. Theirs was a tempestuous and fiery relationship with arguments and shouting the sound of Anna's childhood. She always believes that she was made to feel less loved and valued, that she was more of a nuisance than anything. Now as she contemplates looking through the papers left to her she wonders will her mother finally become known to her. Are there skeletons hidden in the closet waiting to emerge? Only time will tell if she is willing to take the risk and embark upon a journey to discover the answers to the many questions running through her head.

The vast majority of the story is set in Italy and as Anna decides she needs some time on her own, she travels to the Rofelle region in Tuscany to where her mother was born and spent the formative years of her life. Here Angela Petch excels in writing detailed and wonderful descriptions of the Tuscan countryside. The setting jumps out at you from the pages and as the surrounding land where Anna is staying plays such an important role in the book the descriptions were vital in helping the reader establish an overall picture. Anna hopes that as the older generation never liked to talk about things that by going back to where everything happened that she will become closer to her mother and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of who Innes was and how she was changed and altered by her experiences during the war.

Anna stays with Teresa and her brother Francesco. Francesco has a daughter Alba, who has elective mutism following a trauma in her life. These people she meets are complicated but warm and welcoming and over the many days she spends there she comes to know them well. Perhaps she gets a little closer to someone more so than any other but this develops over time and is slow and cautious and not without its worries, fears and the apprehension of embarking on something new and exciting. I thought the relationship that developed between Anna and Alba was so true and genuine. Anna wanted to help Alba to reach beyond the wall of silence she has created for herself. I think Anna's intentions were real but also it was as if she wanted to make up for the fact that her own childhood was not as it should have been and she wouldn't have wished this on anyone else. Anna had been brought up in England to keep her feelings hidden and never to confide in anyone but as the magic and charm of Italy begins to work its magic and as Francesco translates the diaries maybe all is becoming much more clear to her and hopefully she will find the understand she so desperately craves?

The story from the past is told in diary entry form. Extracts are interspersed throughout the modern day story but I initially questioned would it have worked better to have had a specific dual timeline story as in chapters solely dedicated to Anna and then chapters specifically focusing on Innes instead of reading Innes' story through recollections. I didn't think in the beginning we got much of a background into Innes and her family and how they were coping with the war. Instead we are more or less straight into the point where she begins to help the partisans. I just felt we dived into her story at such a vital point and that we needed to get more time to know her and how her family were involved with the war. Innes and her family wish nothing more than for the war to end and so as her brother Davide joins a band of partisans with his friend Caprilo high up in the mountains close to their village she too feels she must do her duty. Innes is filled with loyalty, obligation, courage and bravery. She will put herself in danger countless times as she knows every little bit will help in the effort to see the Germans defeated.

I definitely felt that as the story progressed into the later half of the book that it was at this point that the format of the diary entries really began to work. I was totally sucked into Innes' story as things take dangerous and sinister turns. Her recollections were so vivid and I felt every bit of her anxiety and heartbreak but also as love begins to blossom we saw a different side of her emerging. I became completely lost in what was unfolding so much so that when a diary entry ended I was surprised to be returning to Anna in Italy. It was like I had forgotten she existed and really coming towards the end I wanted to keep reading more and more of Innes as I felt I was gaining such a deep understanding of her. She really did sacrifice so much and how she comes to be in England and raising her family was a surprising turn of events but perhaps not always the happiest times of her life.

Admittedly I did guess the big twist as we came towards the end but I thought it was such a fitting conclusion to what did turn into a brilliant story and one that will leave a lasting impression on you. I thoroughly enjoyed how the story came full circle and the divisions and misunderstandings began to dissipate. I would definitely recommend The Tuscan Secret and it would be even better if you had the luxury of reading it in the surroundings in which it is set. If like me if that cannot be the case than a day curled up on the couch or relaxing in the garden will do just fine as Angela Petch will transport you to a different time and place to a story full of emotion and mystery.