‘The Garden of Angels’ by David Hewson is an engrossing historical fiction novel that is set in Venice and it is told over two timelines.

Fifteen-year-old Nico is part of the House of Ucello, a family well known due to being fabric weavers. His beloved grandfather, Paolo is dying in the summer of 1999. Nico gets suspended from school for not helping when a Jewish schoolmate is stabbed. His grandfather hands him an old typed manuscript and tells him it is a history lesson but warns him not to tell his father.

As Nico begins to read we are transported back to Nazi-occupied Italy in 1943. We learn of the persecution of the Jewish community in Venice and also of the Venetian Resistance and the ways in which they saved so many during that time. The story switched back and forth over the two timelines while Nico learns of the history that has been well hidden over the years. The story eventually takes us into 2019 and we see Nico returning to Venice to discover the final secrets still to be told of his family.

I am a big history geek, it is no secret and Italy during the Second World War is a country I don’t know overly much about. This book had me immersed in Italy and I feel like I have been educated and entertained at the same time.

David Hewson has written a story rich in historical details and descriptions of the settings along with strong characters that keep you wanting to know how this compelling story will end. To say I found it a moving story is an understatement, I personally found it to be a powerful one that, as I said previously, educated me on things that happened in Italy at that time.

Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and David Hewson for my copy of the book and my place on the tour.