Why did I love this book?
Joseph O’Connor is an Irish writer, and Ireland seems to produce some of our greatest writers.
This is a thrilling book that I could not put down and in addition it is beautifully written and is about actual historical events that I personally care about and that I did not know about before reading this. The book recounts how an Irish priest in the Vatican engineered an escape route for thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners of war during World War 2 under Nazi occupation of Italy.
This had personal relevance for me as my uncle was in a prisoner of war camp in Italy and some of my close family members from Germany and Czechoslovakia died in the Holocaust. A story of a real hero who risked his life for others. Inspiring and suspenseful.
3 authors picked My Father's House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Star of the Sea and winner of the 2021 Irish Book Awards Book of the Year for Shadowplay, comes a gripping and atmospheric new novel set in occupied Rome.
September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, a neutral, independent country nestled within the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely…