Villa Of Secrets by Patricia Wilson

          I never take the Publisher's blurb too seriously and just use it to get an idea of the subject matter of the book.  In this case I clearly mis-read it because this book is nothing like I thought it would be.  The opening chapters tell of two orphaned sisters - Rebecca and Naomi - who have been raised by their Bubba and are now grown women forging their own way in the world.  Estranged from each other by Rebecca's choice of husband we learn of their parallel lives.  This is what I thought the book would be about - how they came to be estranged and how they came back together.

Instead this is a powerful book about a tough woman, Pandora Cohen, feisty and fearless she avoided the Nazi cleansing of her people from the Island of Rhodes and strove to protect the island from the invaders; despite it's populace not wanting "her kind", the Jewish "kind".  It did open up an area of history that I had never thought of before - I always associated the Nazi atrocities with Holland, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia but never even stopped to think about other European countries.  I didn't even know that Rhodes used to be Italian territory, thinking of it always as the Greek holiday destination of now.

Told through the pages of Bubba's diaries we learn of the Andartes and their push to free the Dodecanese from German occupation.  The telling is full of life and is so fresh and human it feels, ultimately, real.  There is everything between those flimsy exercise book pages about Bubba's resistance life, her loves, her fears and her desire to "be brave".  You immediately connect with this fictional person and suffer and laugh and love with her, wishing for just an ounce of her spirit.

The juxtaposition with the modern tales of Naomi and Rebecca works well.  Particularly Rebecca's trials in her quest for children which is told with compassion and a straightforwardness that leaves you breathless.  The only character I could not really connect with is Naomi.  Maybe because she is the peacekeeper, the one with the family, the one who just does what is expected without complaint.  She is not a Cohen woman.

Set time aside to read this book because you will become sucked into this dangerous world and before you know it bedtime has come and gone, the lights are burning the small hours of the morning away and you just have to read one more diary entry.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.