Not All Bastards Are from Vienna

Starred review from November 23, 2015
Italian author Molesini’s award-winning debut novel is set during World War I, amid the bitter fighting between the Germans and Italians in northern Italy in 1917–1918. Inspired by his great-aunt’s wartime journals, Molesini tells of the Spada family’s stoic efforts to survive the German occupation of their villa and their village of Refrontolo, north of Venice. This is a powerful tale of endurance, sacrifice, love, and war’s suffering and cruelty, as the villa is looted, village girls are raped, and the resistance effort becomes increasingly risky. Paolo, 17 years old, lives at the villa with his grandparents, his aunt Maria, and their servants, including the mysterious steward Renato. German soldiers are everywhere after the Italian army is routed. Frightened and starving, Paolo, his family, and Renato devise a coded system for passing information to the Italian soldiers. They rescue a downed British pilot and spy on German generals, but when an aristocratic Austrian major takes possession of the villa, the Spadas’ resistance activities become even more vulnerable to betrayal. This is an excellent war novel, as well as a powerful depiction of a family’s strength and mankind’s justification for war’s barbarity, movingly told and full of vivid imagery. Agent: Marcella Marini, Sellerio Editore.

November 15, 2015
War and resistance, sexual awakening and shell shock, sacrifice and survival color the extreme coming-of-age of an Italian teenager experiencing the last year of World War I among the gentry in a small country town. Humor overlays tragedy in Molesini's impressively controlled, gently paced, ultimately piercing debut. The setting is the Villa Spada in Refrontolo, Italy, home to an aristocratic family--two grandparents; aunt Maria; 17-year-old orphaned grandson Paolo--and their servants. It's 1917 and, with occupying German troops billeted in the town, atrocities have been committed: women have been raped; valuables looted. While the family attempts to maintain its role in the community, Paolo assists its steward, Renato, a member of military intelligence, in running missions, including rescuing a downed British pilot. Times are hard, food is short, and life is perilous, yet Molesini's portrait of the community is delivered with a light, often wry touch. Grandma's enemas are a weekly ritual and her enema bags a good place to hide valuables. The villa's shutters and washing line are used to send coded messages. And Paolo's adventures with Renato are matched, for thrills, by his sexual relationship with Giulia, a beautiful but unpredictable older woman. But tragedy gradually takes the upper hand. The German troops are replaced by Austro-Hungarians who, as the 1918 offensive begins, suffer devastating losses; and Paolo, assisting with the wounded and on a steep learning curve, eventually plays his own part in the historic proceedings. While Molesini can't refrain from dropping plangent hints about the world that awaits after this war is over, it's the tragic impact on the Spada family that the reader will remember. Drawn in part from the true-life diaries of Maria Spada, this unusual novel, reflecting the war in microcosm, captures a turning point in the fates of empires.

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December 15, 2015
In 1917, the village of Refrontolo, not far from the front line in the Italian region of Veneto, is overrun by Austro-Hungarian troops. The Villa Spada is requisitioned, making its inhabitants guests in our own house, reduced to dependence on the goodwill of enemy officers. Through the eyes of 17-year-old orphan Paolo, the reader comes to know the aristocratic Spada familyeccentric and gentle Grandfather Guglielmo, fiercely intelligent Grandma Nancy, and Aunt Maria, whose refinement and love of horses draw the attention of several of the officers. Rounding out the household are three servants: the cook, Teresa; her daughter, Loretta; and the steward, Renato, who is an intelligence agent. They do their best to accommodate and adapt in the midst of growing scarcity, brutality, and bloodshed. They also help the Allied Resistance, using a code involving window shutters and laundry hung out to dry. Paolo comes of age as these activities expose the family to greater danger. Combining a comedic touch and vivid characterizations with harrowing depictions of wartime violence, Molesino's first novel was awarded Italy's Campiello Prize.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)