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parsed(2025-02-14) - pubdate: 02/25
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pub date: 1739512800
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The Ghosts of Rome

Book 2 in The Rome Escape Line Trilogy

February 14, 2025 | Hardcover
ISBN: 9798889660620
$43.50
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Description

In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir successfully smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls wounded from the sky, The Choir is plunged into danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.

The Escape Line's collapse would leave thousands stranded. Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, its architect and the acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, paralyzed by the perils of keeping his Roman underground railroad functioning. Meanwhile, SS Commander Paul Hauptmann has been tasked with destroying the entire operation, and the price of failure is high--his wife and children are under Gestapo lock-and-key in Berlin. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann's authority.

Beautifully written and expertly crafted, The Ghosts of Rome is a historical suspense novel bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters by one of contemporary fiction's most acclaimed and beloved writers.

About this Author

Joseph O'Connor's Shadowplay was named Novel of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Costa Book Award. His novel Star of the Sea was published in thirty-eight languages and won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Littéraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. He is the author of ten novels and is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. My Father's House, the critically acclaimed first book in his Rome Escape Line Trilogy was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Walter Scott Prize.

ISBN: 9798889660620
Format: Hardcover
Series: Rome Escape Line Trilogy
Pages: 400
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2025-02-14

Reviews

Praise for The Ghosts of Rome

? "The Ghosts of Rome is a deeply affecting read with an ending that's sad yet life affirming... Mesmerising, tragic,
horrifying, utterly unputdownable... An outstanding read for fans of WWII fiction and of writers like Anthony Doerr."--Emily Melton, Booklist (Starred Review)

? "Pulse-pounding... O'Connor captivates with his vigorous portrayal of wartime Rome."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

? "The story is exciting and rich with prose that's a joy to read... Top-notch storytelling filled with emotion and drama."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"It was hard to turn pages fast enough to keep up with the rapid-fire pace of The Ghosts of Rome. O'Connor lures readers into a little known, but important, facet of World War II history and keeps them hooked until the very last page."--Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Personal Librarian

"Thrilling, terrifying and entertaining in equal measure, The Ghosts of Rome is beautifully written, warm and witty. A must-read!"--Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

"A continuation and elaboration upon O'Connor's My Father's House set in Rome during the Nazi occupation close to the end of World War II, this gripping story recounts actual occurrences fictionalized for dramatic effect but resonating with truth... Lovers of suspenseful stories, students of WWII history and those who are looking for a novel with relatable characters and a worthy moral framework will surely find this one to their pleasure."--Reading the West

Praise for My Father's House 

"A potent blend of excitement, suspense and intrigue... A gripping World War II-set drama featuring the unlikeliest of heroes, one whom the reader roots for every step of the way... hugely satisfying."--Malcom Forbes, Washington Post

"My Father's House is primarily--and triumphantly--an intimate drama that illuminates both the fragility and the wonder of unlikely human connections forged in adversity and, in some cases, enduring for a lifetime."--Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal 

"Sometimes a novel's setting looms so large it becomes a crucial element of the plot. That's certainly true of the dangerous streets of World War II Rome, which Joseph O'Connor explores in his historical thriller My Father's House."--Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review 

? "O'Connor is a masterful storyteller, weaving a violent, terrifying, suspenseful, yet ultimately uplifting story of one man's courage and determination to fight back against Nazi brutality, whatever the risk. Superb!"--Booklist (Starred Review) 

? "Riveting... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) 

? "If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O'Connor's phrasings are a special joy... A deeply emotional read."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) 

"A riveting tale about the power of community in the face of unfathomable evil... A seamless blend of fact and fiction by a master of the genre; a brisk, polyphonic narrative that brings the heroism of ordinary people thrillingly to life."--Irish Times 

"The diverse ventriloquism of O'Connor's novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality."--Financial Times (UK) 

"The novel's evocative scene-setting, its propulsive narration and its powerful depiction of bravery and unity in extremis, all make for an engrossing read."--The Telegraph (UK) 

"A spectacular, thrilling novel... the novel offers much more than tensely plotted thrills. O'Flaherty's deep and impressively detailed love of Rome is emphasised and handsomely conveyed by O'Connor... My Father's House celebrates triumphant against-the-odds camaraderie. It would require a present-day Puccini to do operatic justice to its tremendous tale."--The Sunday Times (UK) 

"This remains a tale worth re-telling, adorned as it is by the brilliance of O'Connor's impressionistic writing."--The Times (UK), A Best New Thriller for January 2023 

"There have been many books written and films made about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the Kerry-born Vatican priest who rescued thousands of Jews and Allied Prisoners of War during the Second World War. But his latest incarnation, as the hero of this fast-moving novel by Joseph O'Connor, is surely the most memorable... A novel that triumphantly recreates the extraordinary human being that was Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and his colourful co-conspirators."--Irish Examiner 

"Superb."--Irish Independent 

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