A Secret in Tuscany - by Alan Hlad (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Tuscan Child meets Beneath a Scarlet Sky in this bittersweet tale of wartime heroism, love, and redemption, spanning two generations and encompassing a real-life mystery, from the author of The Long Flight Home and Churchill's Secret Messenger.

Italy, 1943 With war blazing through Europe, nowhere is entirely safe--not even the remote hills of the Tuscan countryside. It's here that Italian partisans, including thousands of women, risk their lives to provide Jewish refugees with an escape route to Switzerland. And it's here, too, that Gianna Conti travels to join the Italian Resistance in the wake of her brother Matteo's death at the hands of German soldiers. Her father has been hiding Jewish refugees on their family's vineyard in Chianti, but now Gianna is bringing the fight directly to the enemy.

While delivering weapons and intelligence for partisans, Gianna meets Tazio Napoli, an American working undercover for the Office of Strategic Services. Despite the growing odds of discovery, Gianna and Tazio conduct high-risk missions to sabotage German operations. With the aid of Tazio's OSS codebook, they encrypt secret messages to each other while apart, hiding them at a dead drop in an abandoned mine.

But as the Allies steadily fight their way toward Florence, occupying German forces grow more desperate, leading to a shocking, unthinkable act of vengeance. And Gianna's fate will rest upon her cunning, her resilience, and her willingness to keep hope alive, even through the decades that follow . . .

Review Quotes

Praise for Alan Hlad's Novels:

"A sweeping tale full of romance and espionage, poignant sacrifice and missed chances, uncommon courage, and the ongoing costs of war. A compelling debut told with conviction and great heart." --Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin on The Long Flight Home

"Tense, heartwarming and life affirming, The Long Flight Home gives a fresh slant on heroism in WWII." --Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author
"The walled-off feeling of loneliness in a crowd pervades the pages of Hlad's piercing historical thriller. Based on a fascinating and little-known true story of World War II... Hlad's immersive portrayal of wartime Lisbon and its inhabitants, of the loneliness caused by the terror that anybody at any time could be an informant, plus his captivating thriller/romance tale make this a must-read, especially for fans of Kate Quinn's The Rose Code." --firstCLUE, Starred Review for The Book Spy

"A wonderful mix of deep historical research and writing craft...This important tale exposes a side of espionage that is often overlooked--the recruitment of ordinary citizens--and it reminds us to never underestimate librarians, guardians of democracy in more ways than one." - Historical Novels Review on The Book Spy

"Hlad's debut snares readers with its fresh angle on the blitz of WWII, focusing on the homing pigeons used by the British, and the people who trained and cared for them... Descriptions of the horrors of war and the excitement of battle are engaging, and the unusual element of the carrier pigeons lends an intriguing twist. This story will speak not only to romance readers and WWII buffs but also to animal advocates and anyone who enjoys discovering quirky details that are hidden in history." --Publishers Weekly on The Long Flight Home

"Drawing on historical material, Hlad concocts an appealing and exciting story... intertwining the romance and action stories, treating both realistically and largely without melodrama." --Booklist on Churchill's Secret Messenger

"[A] rousing historical novel about daring Resistance workers in World War II... Hlad takes the story to torture cells and Ravensbrück concentration camp, incorporating historical elements like the daring Project Jericho raid and the 1942 detention of thousands of Jews, including Lazare's parents, in a Paris cycling arena before they were sent to their ultimate fate. The sacrifice and valor of these characters is stirring." --The Akron Beacon Journal on Churchill's Secret Messenger

"Hlad dives deep into the history and pulls together several remarkable stories and fashions them into Rose and her role in Operation Jericho. This makes for an exciting, tense story with life-or-death drama unfolding on each page. Hope and love resonating between the characters and Hlad's evocative writing make this a don't-miss book." --The Historical Novels Review on Churchill's Secret Messenger

"Alan Hlad tells a dramatic, fictionalized story about the real use of pigeons during World War II...Compelling...The engaging plot and fascinating details of the National Pigeon Service make it a rewarding read. Many civilian pigeon-keepers volunteered to try to turn the tide of the war, not knowing if it would work or be worth the loss of their birds in the dangerous process. The Long Flight Home captures the contributions of the average citizens who, in a time of peril, rose to meet the challenge in heroic ways." --BookPage on The Long Flight Home

"This well-researched historical novel presents a wealth of period detail and develops a romantic story inspired by the actual discovers-reported in newspapers more than a half century after the war-of the skeleton of an English homing pigeon carrying a sti"l-legible coded message. The destructiveness of war, particularly the random carnage caused by the bombing of civilian areas, is vividly described, as well as the bravery of many citizens, including the homing pigeons of the National Pigeon Service." --VOYA Magazine on The Long Flight Home

"Hlad's debut delves into an obscure piece of World War II history: the covert mission of the National Pigeon Service, which deployed an army of homing pigeons to send messages to Britain from Nazi-occupied France...Ollie's attempts to escape from France are gripping, and Hlad adeptly drives home the devastating civilian cost of the war." --Booklist on The Long Flight Home

"In Alan Hlad's fascinating story based on true events, he explores the special bond between an orphaned girl who raises the homing pigeons and an American soldier desperate to help the Royal Air Force." --AFAR Magazine, The Best Summer Reads on The Long Flight Home

"The state of Maine is left behind in Alan Hlad's tale of heroism and romance, but its spirit-stoic, modest, independent--is well represented in Ollie...With its accounts of Luftwaffe raids on Britain and the unusual operation called Source Columba, which employed 16,000 pigeons in intelligence gathering, The Long Flight Home is a fresh avenue into a curious piece of World War II history." --Down East Magazine on The Long Flight Home

"Based on true events, The Long Flight Home has everything I love in a novel-the sense of discovery, the epic drama of a life-or-death situation, and the soaring sense of hope gained from the depths of despair. It's a gorgeous, impressive first novel by a hugely talented author'." --Susan Wiggs, # 1 New York Times bestselling author on The Long Flight Home

"A story of loss and heartbreak, sacrifice and compassion, The Long Flight Home is ultimately a story of hope." --The New York Journal of Books on The Long Flight Home

"A rousing historical novel." --The Akron Beacon Journal, Best Books of the Year for Churchill's Secret Messenger

About the Author

Alan Hlad is the internationally bestselling author of historical fiction novels inspired by real people and events of WWI and WWII, including The Book Spy, Churchill's Secret Messenger, A Light Beyond the Trenches, and the USA Today and IndieBound bestseller The Long Flight Home. A member of the Historical Novel Society, Literary Cleveland, Novelitics, and the Akron Writers' Group, he is a frequent speaker at conferences, literary events, and book club gatherings. He currently divides his time between Ohio and Portugal and can be found online at AlanHlad.com.