My Father's House: AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS (The Rome Escape Line, 1)

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Hauptmann already has utter contempt for the Irish priest after he was appointed to serve as an official Vatican visitor to the Italian concentration camp for British prisoners of war. Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for accepting my request to audibly read and review My Father's House.

I appreciate stories that shed light on that era, even more so when I’m learning something new from them. At times, I feel as if I’m just behind Hugh as his feet tread the streets or alleys in fear of discovery. Finally, the conclusion confirmed for me that God’s hand is in everything - even events we could never imagine happening. The premise of this story set my heart racing and I just couldn't wait to get struck in but unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with the writing style and while I got about 3/4 ways through the book, I felt I was struggling and not getting my head around the story.

It's another part of the book where O'Connor excels, such is his attention to detail of the buildings in the basilica. Driven by a deluded patriotism, he dreams of delivering to Hitler a conquest that will strengthen his career and bring prosperity to his family. Joseph O’Connor has created an unforgettable novel of love, faith and sacrifice, and what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances. I have watched this film so many times and of all the WW2 stories this one breaks my heart each time. With his help, guidance and leadership thousands of Jews, Allied prisoners and diplomats were able to be smuggled out of Italy.

For example, the acerbic wit and Irish lilt of displomat’s wife, Delia Kiernan – ‘Some little jack-in-office of a penpusher thinks he’ll lord it over yours truly? Ghostlight' and 'Star of the sea' were also recent favourites, so I was keen to read 'My father's house' when it was released. The description of My Father’s House as a ‘literary’ thriller is spot on because, alongside the gripping story, the narrative has some brilliant stylistic flourishes.

Beautifully crafted, his razor-sharp dialogue is to be savoured, and he employs dark humour to great effect. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. The patterning of narrative, commentary, narrative etc, worked well to begin with but became repetitive by the halfway point.

He was on to the Monsignor and had compiled a dossier on him but so far had not been able to charge him with anything. The mission is to smuggle Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy to safety - all this under the ever watchful eyes of the Nazis, and one Nazi in particular, Obersturmbannfurher Paul Hauptmann. It was also interesting to be presented with the response to Rome’s capture by the Nazi’s and the consequences for the Vatican. I was held captive with O’Connor’s premise; a choir conductor and choir preparing for a performance!This is a well conceived novel which has a group of individuals led by Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty to find sanctuary and safety for escaped prisoners of war. Other details pertaining to the mission and the participants can be gathered from written statements, pages from an unpublished memoir and interview transcripts of the choir members twenty years after the events (1962-63)which are interspersed throughout the narrative. Based on a true story, and several real characters, My Father’s House opens in September 1943 with wartime Rome as its memorable backdrop. From the publisher: Book 1 in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy, My Father’s House is a powerful, heartbreaking literary thriller based on the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who risked his life to smuggle thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy under the nose of his Nazi nemesis, Hauptmann.