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

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In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals, and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family's ranks. The choir is made up of colorful characters, from the newspaper seller Enzo Angelucci, Delia Kiernan, wife of the senior Irish diplomat to the Vatican, and the Contessa Giovanna Landini .

The countdown to the Rendimento adds further suspense and tension, and I like the way the author almost draws this out (in a good way) as you’re almost holding your breath and when it comes you are willing them on, but so afraid for them. 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.

This annoys not only the nazis but also incurs the wrath of the Vatican, worried about their neutral status. There's no doubt in my mind that the Monsignor’s training prepared him to intervene in difficult situations rather than being content to remain a bystander. It’s the story of tremendous bravery and sacrifice, and is based on the true story of Hugh O’Flaherty. The story is based on the true story of Irish Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty a Vatican Priest based at the Vatican who with some other Patriots run the escape line in Nazi occupied Rome who saved over 6,500 soldiers by housing and hiding soldiers, escaped prisoners of war and jews that the Nazi regime took against.

Based on true events, My Father’s House by Joseph O' Connor, the first in his Rome Escape Line Trilogy, is a fictionalized account of a secret mission (codename Redimento) carried out by Monsignor Hugh O’ Flaherty, an Irish Catholic priest, and his trusted accomplices during WWII.All the while the members of the choir are working on the plans for forthcoming missions they are mindful of the risks they are running. Ghostlight' and 'Star of the sea' were also recent favourites, so I was keen to read 'My father's house' when it was released. Regardless, it was quite interesting and compelling due to the author's writing and treatment of the subject matter (WWII, Holocaust), which includes an IRL Irish Monsignor stationed in Rome who helped Jews and other escapees flee the Nazis.

The story is set in Nazi-occupied Rome during December 1943 and unfolds as a countdown towards 'a mission'. My Father’s House is 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. This read of historical fiction, based upon the true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, is a literary thriller.

The visits were stopped and O’Flaherty became Hauptmann’s arch enemy as the Nazi suspected him of being a sympathiser (or more) of the Escape Line. A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us. This is a truly remarkable story, told extremely well with genuine intensity, so you are immersed in those dark days of 1943.

During the Nazi occupation of Rome it housed not only the Pope and the Vatican's clergy, but also various diplomats and foreigners who had fled there for safety. On Christmas Eve, 1943, a mission (code name Rendimento) was run by members of a choir and a network of accomplices. Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, aka Ugo and Hughdini, is tasked with visiting the horrors of the Italian POW camps, an appointment the Nazis thought would not raise the terrifying conditions as the Irish were known to despise the English.

My father's house' is set in wartime Rome, occupied by the Nazis and lead by Gestapo commander Paul Hauptmann, who takes a hands on approach to his work. An absolute gut punch of a book that throbs with all the rage of a middle-aged woman who refuses to go quietly' RED 'Readers will relish the letting loose of one woman's long-suppressed righteous rage . On a related note if you are interested in the true version of events Mr O'Connor provides further reading at the end of the book and you can visit the statue of Hugh O'Flaherty in Killarney National Park in Kerry (where they do now have crushed ice, tomato ketchup and easy access to garlic - read the book and you'll understand the reference). I have often wondered as a girl raised solidly in the principles of the Catholic Church why something wasn't done to save the Jews by the church.