The annals of World War II are filled with stories of Righteous Gentiles who risked death to save Jewish lives. Some were Danish, some were Swedish, some Dutch. But novelist Mary Doria Russell wants the world to know of the massive effort to rescue Jews undertaken by the Italian people.
In her new novel, “A Thread of Grace,” Russell tells a sweeping tale of Jews fleeing the oncoming Nazi army and the Italian villagers who hid and protected them. She was in San Francisco recently to sign books and talk to readers about her story.
It’s a story close to Russell’s heart: She’s Italian by ancestry and Jewish by choice.
And she’s a science fiction writer by reputation. Her novel “The Sparrow” and its sequel “Children of God” earned her ardent sci-fi fans worldwide. “A Thread of Grace” is her first historical novel and was more than five years in the making.
“It was a mountain of research I had to climb,” says the Cleveland resident in a phone interview. “I’ve done the equivalent of a Ph.D. because I wanted to use real brick to build a fictional building.”
That research included two lengthy visits to northern Italy where the novel is set. There she met aging survivors, both Jewish and non-Jewish, from those days late in 1943 after Italy broke off from the Axis and Germany undertook a merciless occupation.
“Even as they were retreating, the Germans were doing sweeps through valleys to get Jews,” she notes. “I don’t want to take anything away from the Danes, but [the Italians] hiding people by the thousands day after day has to count for something.”
Being a true-to-life story, Russell’s novel is filled with moments of heroism and tragedy, much of it of the mercurial kind seen in wartime. “I literally flipped a coin to see who lives and dies,” she says of the book’s characters. “I didn’t want to write a feel-good Holocaust novel.”
The emphasis on realism may be due in part to Russell’s previous career as a paleoanthropologist. Her resume includes studies of cannibalism and human skulls. That eye for the finest human detail seems to have served her well as a writer.
But Judaism, she quickly acknowledges, has served her even better as a human being.
The Chicago-born author was raised nominally Christian and attended Catholic schools (her family, the Dorias, are a descended from the admiral for whom the ill-fated ship Andrea Doria was named). Russell’s interest in science led her to shed for a time nearly all spiritual leanings, but after marriage and motherhood, she sensed something missing.
“I was a contented atheist for years,” she says, “but when I became a mother, I realized I wanted my son to have a moral and ethical framework. It occurred to me everything I valued in moral precepts was rooted in Judaism.”
As much as she gained in terms of her personal spiritual life, Russell saw her conversion as part of a broader statement. “I was not just making this decision for myself,” she adds. “I was volunteering for a status that could get you killed. Because of my political beliefs, in the event Jews went down, I’d be going down too.”
Although her husband did not convert, Russell raised her son in a Jewish home, lighting Shabbat candles and celebrating the Jewish holidays. Her husband even pitches in by fasting on Yom Kippur. “He’s been a part of it from the beginning,” she says, “and supports us in every way.”
Russell says she keeps up with the anthropological world but admits her career as a novelist is more than a full-time job. The funny thing about it is, she never trained for any of this, let alone expected success.
“My last English class was during the Nixon administration when Sonny and Cher were on TV,” she says with a laugh. “But I’m a passionate analytical reader. I try to figure out why some books hold my attention from front to back, and why others don’t.”
She’s certainly hoping “A Thread of Grace” holds her own readers’ attention. For her, the saga of the Italian Jews holds a clear message for all time. Her only remaining question: “Why,” she asks, “does it take 60 years and some American chick to bring this to light?”
“A Thread of Grace” by Mary Doria Russell (448 pages, Random House, $25.95).