The Girl from Venice

The Girl from Venice is a 2016 historical fiction novel by American author Martin Cruz Smith. The novel details the encounter and subsequent relationship between Innocenzo (Cenzo) Vianello, a fisherman from Pellestrina, and Giulia Silber, daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from Venice, and is set in early 1945.

The Girl from Venice
1st ed, HC
AuthorMartin Cruz Smith
Cover artistRex Bonomelli
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
17 October 2016
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages320 (hardback)
ISBN978-1-439-14023-9

Plot

The novel takes place during the weeks before the collapse of the Republic of Salò and the death of Benito Mussolini. While fishing at night, Cenzo rescues Giulia from the water, who was fleeing from the Wehrmacht. Giulia had been hiding with her family in a hospital, but their location and identity were betrayed, and she swims the Venetian Lagoon to escape. Cenzo's pastoral life soon becomes quite complicated as he tries to help her leave Italy.

Publication history
  • — (October 2016). The Girl from Venice (First hardcover ed.). ISBN 978-1439140239. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  • — (October 2016). The Girl from Venice (eBook ed.). ISBN 978-1439153192. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  • — (9 July 2017). The Girl from Venice (UK paperback ed.). ISBN 978-1849838160.
  • — (September 2017). The Girl from Venice (Trade paperback ed.). ISBN 978-1439140246. Retrieved 15 November 2017.

Reception

Critics were generally positive. Dennis Drabelle, reviewing for The Washington Post, called it an "engaging new novel".[1] Bethanne Patrick, for NPR, felt the plot was simple, but the novel was well written, stating that "everything is predictable, and yet nothing is stale" and "it will also serve as a tonic to those who are weary of terribly complex plots requiring flow charts and genealogies".[2] However, Charles Finch, writing for The New York Times, called it "very, very bad" and full of Hemingway-like clichés about war: "every gesture of midcentury Romanticism in “The Girl From Venice” is a received one, repackaged and presented as the most profound wisdom".[3]

References
  1. Drabelle, Dennis (16 October 2016). "Martin Cruz Smith brings us wartime Italy in 'Girl from Venice'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  2. Patrick, Bethanne (19 October 2016). "A Fisherman And His Beautiful First Mate, On The Run In 'Girl From Venice'". NPR. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  3. Finch, Charles (24 October 2016). "Six New Thrillers for Fall". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2017.

Reviews


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