Safe Return Doubtful

published 2024 – translated from the Italian by Clarissa Botsford

Based on actual events that took place in a village in the south of Tuscany, Naspini’s own home town, this concerns a cobbler leading a simple life, who is drawn into helping partisans fight against fascists and Nazis without being full aware of what he is doing.

The cobbler, René, is in love with his neighbour, Anna, whose partisan son is executed by the authorities. Anna leaves to join the partisans and asks René to cover for her absence. He gradually gets drawn into danger, and is captured and imprisoned in the bishop’s villa in the autumn of 1943, a key stage in the war.

Naspini pits collaboration against resistance with good effect. The previously tightknit community is spilt; amid widespread collusion, some find it in themselves to resist the Nazis, while the majority won’t accept the horror that now is their daily lives.

This is a powerful salute to the fallen of the Holocaust, set around a prison that was previously a seminary, a stop-off on the way to death camps. It’s a very personal story for Naspini who was born in the village and has lived there for much of his life.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5