Blog Tour: SAVING MADONNA by Kate Bristow

 

Saving Madonna

by Kate Bristow

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GENRE: Historical Fiction

 

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BLURB: Is a painting worth dying for?

 

Inspired by real events, an unforgettable story of love, courage and sacrifice to save a country’s heritage.

 

Italy 1943. As the Allies bomb Milan, Elena Marchetti reluctantly gives up her coveted job as an art curator in the city to return to her family farm near Urbino. She takes up a new role assisting Pasquale Rotondi, the Superintendent of Arts in the region, in protecting works of art from all over Italy that have been hidden in the relative safety of the countryside.

 

At a family celebration, Elena reunites with Luca, a close childhood friend. A shattering event instigated by the occupying Germans deepens their relationship, and they start planning a life together. When rumors surface that Italy’s art is being stolen by the German occupiers, Pasquale hatches an audacious plan to rescue the priceless paintings in his possession. Elena and Luca are forced to make an impossible decision: will they embark on a dangerous mission to save Italy’s cultural heritage?

 

 

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Excerpt Two:

 

Luca was getting frustrated. Two weeks had passed since he had stood up for Elena during the argument about the truck, and he was no closer to procuring her any sort of transport. He had visited all the neighboring farms, except for the one owned by Signor Bruni, to find out if there was any chance of borrowing a vehicle. He had not been surprised to learn that nobody wanted to give up their precious trucks or cars. Even those who had been without fuel for months still clung to the hope that somehow they might be able to find some. It did not help that very few thought that helping the superintendent was a priority given the more immediate issues they were dealing with.

 

“I have six children to feed, two cows that are ailing, a fence that needs mending, and more besides,” complained Signor Conti when Luca had stopped to talk to him that afternoon after coming upon the farmer struggling with barbed wire on the edge of one of his fields. “I can tell you now, moving some paintings around is not at the top of my list. I can’t imagine you’ll find many takers in these parts, son.” Signor Conti looked at him kindly. “I am not saying I want the Germans to take them either. Don’t get me wrong.” He let off a stream of expletives, as if to emphasize how much he despised the occupiers. “I just think we have to focus on what we can control rather than the things we can’t.”

 

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What’s Your Favorite Scene In This Story and Why?

 

The scenes in ‘Saving Madonna’ that I am proudest of from a writing perspective are fairly harrowing. I wanted to portray the horrors of war and the feelings of helplessness an occupied people experience, through the lenses of characters that the reader, hopefully, will have come to care about. But I would be hard-pressed to describe any of those scenes as my ‘favorite’ given the subject matter.

 

Instead I am going to share a scene early on in the book which was a joy to write. Imagine yourself in the countryside in central Italy during World War 2. The Rossi family are throwing a party at their farm for their beloved Nonna (grandmother) who is celebrating her 80^th birthday. They have invited their neighbors in the valley to join them for a birthday feast and dancing. It is the fall of 1943, and the Germans have recently occupied the area, making an already difficult situation even harder. Food has been scarce for months, rationing is in place, young men continue to be conscripted to fight and the people are scared of what might come next. My main protagonists Luca Rossi and his neighbor Elena Marchetti are going to meet for the first time in a year during this party. Elena has been away working in Milan and has just returned home for safety reasons due to the Allied bombing campaign in the city. So this is a pivotal scene in the story—we see Elena first through Luca’s eyes, we get to meet her and learn a little bit about her, we see how the friends and neighbors interact with her.

 

This scene also gave me an opportunity to sow the seeds of the initial friction between Elena and Luca. Elena is working as the assistant to an art museum director and believes in her boss’s desire to save the priceless works of art in his care from being destroyed by Allied bombing or stolen by the occupying Germans. Luca, on the other hand, is a farmer and thinks that there are more pressing concerns than art in a time of war. He is worried about keeping the farm going to provide food for his family and the community and avoiding being dragged into the war as a soldier. From their conversation at the party we learn a little about each of their characters and their relationship with one another.

 

All this happens with the party as a backdrop. I am lucky enough to have my home in Italy and I was able to draw on the years of outdoor parties I have either hosted or attended in this beautiful part of the world to create this particular celebration. The jam jars full of wildflowers, the long wooden tables, lanterns in the trees, the plates of casciotta cheese, salami and prosciutto, homemade ravioli, honey from local hives, wine from the vines nearby…it was fun to write about an Italian feast while also frantically researching what was actually available during the war and what might be possible to make or procure in a time of deprivation.

 

The party scene represents a moment when all my characters are enjoying themselves and the company of their loved ones. Unfortunately not everyone at the party will survive the war. As they say in Italian ‘Vivi il momento’ (live for the moment).

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kate Bristow was born in London. She fell in love with reading when she got her first library card at the age of four. Her first attempt at writing and publishing for a wide audience was a local newspaper typed laboriously at home on her mother’s typewriter while at primary (elementary) school in north London. It is surely a loss to cutting-edge journalism that only one issue was ever produced. Kate divides her time between her small-but-perfectly-formed modern home in Los Angeles and her five-hundred-year-old farmhouse just outside Sassocorvaro in Italy.

 

 

Author Links:

 

Website: https://www.katebristow.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katebristowauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katebristowauthor/

 

Universal Buy Link: https://1link.st/katebristow

 

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GIVEAWAY

 

Kate Bristow will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway