was expecting good things from this.

If it was translated better maybe
Or
Edited better…..maybe

I did like the chance to read this from the Italian POV though.

Not for me.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

Vitantonio and Giovanna are born on the same day to two mothers who both lost their husbands in World War One, but all of Vitantonio's family were killed during the war - all 21 men and so he is the last of the line in the little town in the mountains in Puglia in Italy. His mother is terrified that there is a curse on the family and will go to any lengths to make sure that her son is safe and will not be killed by the curse in any future wars.

Vitantonio therefore grows up believing that Giovanna is his sister but how will family conflicts pan out and will his mother's sacrifice be worth it.

I found the book a bit slow to start off with and maybe the translation made it seem slightly wooden in parts but once I got into the story I really enjoyed it and certainly learnt some areas of history that I didn't know about and found it very interesting to be told from the point of view of an Italian

As part of my personal reading challenge this year, I am trying to read more books in translation – there are so many fantastic books out there in other languages and, sadly I won’t be able to work on the languages, but I certainly intend to seek out more translations to add to my wish list.

The Last Son’s Secret, originally written in Catalan, is beautifully translated into English by Mara Faye Lethem, and retains all the pace, emotion and drama of the original text.

I am a sucker for a wartime, historical novel, and while the lion’s share of the novel takes place between the wars, it serves in some instances as a useful history lesson – for example, I had no real idea that Italy fought with the allies in World War One, before forming a alliance with Germany by the 1930s. There is also a great deal written about the French resistance during the German occupation, but this book also provides an introduction to the Italian resistance and anti-fascists that were also working against the Germans.

While there is a lot of factual information, and real-life events in the novel, it is skillfully interwoven with the fictional characters, and so never seems like a ‘facts overload’. The narrative is very clear and focused, using the real events to add drama and tragedy into the story of Giovanna and Vitantonio. This is particularly evident in the World War 2 sections, where we have seen the two characters grow up from babies, but now follow them as adults, as they make their own decisions and follow their own paths.

In terms of readability, the book starts out at a good pace, then there is a minor lag as we watch the children grow up, but I wonder if this is just the nature of the idyllic lifestyle shown here? The pace picks up again as the threat of war looms and the World War Two sections are packed with action and very quick to read.

This is the first of Rafel Nadal Farreras’ novels to be translated into English, and I would definitely read more, should they become available.

The Last Son’s Secret was published by Black Swan on 29th June. For more information about the author and to read an extract of the novel, you can take a look at the book’s page on the Penguin website.

(Live 3rd July)

This novel by Catalan author Rafel Nadal Farreras apparently enjoyed a lot of success when published in its original language in 2015 and is now available for the first time in an English translation by Mara Faye Lethem.

The story is set in the Puglia region of Italy where, in the small town of Bellorotondo, the names of twenty-one members of the Palmisano family are engraved on a memorial to the First World War. Vito Oronzo, the last Palmisano man to die in the war, leaves behind a pregnant wife, Donata. When the child – a boy whom she names Vitantonio – is born, Donata is so afraid that her son will succumb to the curse of the Palmisanos that she takes desperate measures to secure his safety.

The Last Son’s Secret follows little Vitantonio through his idyllic childhood in rural Italy, growing up alongside Giovanna Convertini, the daughter of his father’s best friend who was also killed on the same day in 1918.

"They took dips in the stone laundry trough, caught crickets in the garden, ran through the fields as the farmers cleared the dead leaves from the olive trees, and they ate dinner together at the kitchen table. In the evenings everyone gathered on the threshing floor and sat in the cool air: the grown-ups sang and told stories and the children played hide-and-seek until they were so worn out they fell asleep on their aunt’s lap."

Elsewhere in Puglia, however, life is not so pleasant. A neighbour’s six-year-old son is sold into child labour, while in the nearby cave houses of Matera families live in extreme poverty. Further afield, Mussolini is rising to power and Europe is on the brink of war once more. Eventually, Vitantonio, Giovanna and their friends will be forced to take sides. Will the Palmisano curse strike again or has Donata done enough to protect her son from his father’s fate?

I enjoyed The Last Son’s Secret; despite it being set during the two world wars, it’s not as depressing as it might sound – the likeable main character and the messages of hope and optimism are enough to counteract the darker aspects of the plot. The depiction of life in Italy between the wars is beautiful and I could easily imagine I was there in Bellorotondo, harvesting olives, picking cherries and planting flowers in the garden of the Convertini palazzo. I particularly liked the descriptions of Matera, where Vitantonio hides out for a while at the beginning of the war.

The Second World War chapters are also interesting to read, and I couldn’t help thinking how rarely I have read anything that looks at the war from an Italian perspective. This is certainly the first time I have read a fictional portrayal of the chemical disaster caused by the release of mustard gas during the sinking of the American ship John Harvey in the port of Bari.

The Last Son’s Secret is a surprisingly quick read, but it did take me a few chapters to really get into the story. This is probably because it begins with a long chronicle of the deaths of the Palmisano men, which I expect was intended to be a quirky and unusual opening to the novel but didn’t quite work for me. Also, while Vitantonio’s story was moving at times, I don’t really think I would describe it as the sweeping, heartbreaking epic promised by the blurb. Maybe some of the emotion was lost in translation – although in general I did think the translation flowed well and I had no real complaints about it. If any other books by Rafel Nadal Farreras become available in English I would be happy to read them.