The daily Astorian., June 22, 2017, Page 19, Image 28

JUNE 22, 2017 // 19
BOOK SHELF // GLIMPSE // WILDLIFE // POP CULTURE // WORDS // Q&A // FOOD // FUN
manhood, choosing “the
greater good,” as Father Re
would call it, while suffering
deep personal loss.
“Beneath a Scarlet Sky”
combines heroism and har-
rowing action with brooding
perspectives on morality.
This hefty book is a thor-
BOOKMONGER
A tale of heroism from the ‘Forgotten Front’
They are there — we
blink — and then they’re
gone. That seems to be
happening all too frequently
these days as the number
of survivors of the Great
Depression and World War
II dwindle, and so many of
their stories of deprivation
and resilience vanish with
their passing.
But when Bozeman au-
thor Mark Sullivan stumbled
across the remarkable story
of Pino Lella more than a
decade ago, and learned that
Lella was still alive, he flew
to Italy to capture firsthand
the details of Lella’s experi-
ences in Italy during World
War II.
After a series of in-
terviews with Lella, and
extensive research into war
archives in both Europe and
the United States, Sullivan
has written “Beneath a Scar-
let Sky,” a novelized version
of Lella’s story of survival
on what has been called one
of World War II’s “Forgotten
Fronts.”
At 17, Lella was fixated
primarily on friends, music
and an unattainable older
woman named Anna. But
when his family home in
Nazi-occupied Milan was
destroyed during an Allied
bombing raid, his parents
sent him to an alpine camp
run by a Catholic priest.
They may have thought
they were sending him away
from danger, but Father Re
had other designs for Lella.
The Vatican had recently
issued secret instructions to
all Italian Catholics to offer
refuge to Jews and anyone
else being persecuted by the
Nazis. Since Father Re’s
camp was in the Italian
Alps, and close to the Swiss
border, the priest decided
to have Lella lead Jewish
refugees across the moun-
tains to safety in neutral
Switzerland.
Throughout the winter of
1943-44, the quickly matur-
ing teen braved blizzards,
avalanches, cutthroat smug-
glers and ruthless Nazis to
lead small bands of asylum
seekers to sanctuary.
The next spring, he was
summoned back to town
by his parents, who were
worried that with his 18th
oughly riveting read.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, au-
thors and publishers of the
Pacific Northwest. Contact
her at bkmonger@nwlink.
com
Crossword Answer
birthday approaching he
would be drafted into the
Italian service and sent to
the Russian front, certain
to become “cannon fod-
der.” Instead, with the war
winding down, his family
advised him to join the
German Army, where they
knew a contact who could
assign him to a unit that was
dedicated to construction,
not fighting.
Lella resisted the idea of
being associated with the
Germans in any way, but ul-
timately acquiesced. In what
turned out to be a bizarre se-
ries of events, he caught the
eye of the German general
overseeing Nazi operations
“Beneath a Scarlet Sky”
By Mark Sullivan
Lake Union Publishing
520 pp
$14.99
in Italy, and became his
driver. In that position, Lella
was able to feed valuable
intelligence back to the
partisan resistance. Further-
more, when Lella took the
German general to visit his
mistress, the woman’s maid
turned out to be Anna, Lel-
la’s unrequited love interest
from the year before.
Against a backdrop of an-
archy, brutality and revenge,
Lella navigated the road to
O
L
D
P
A
L
S
R
O
O
T
R
O
T
A
Q
U
A
C
A
R
R
A
B
I
D
E
P
O
D
E
N
O
O
N
E
A
N
D
O
N
E
I
F
O
R
G
E
T
A
T
W
O
R
S
T
N G S
U A T
B L E K
E R N
S E A
D
O V
A W
E
T R Y
A I S S
S T L E
T S
M
O
A P
R
R E
A L G R
G O
E R H O
D O W
Z
N E
E
E D
T
S T
A
T O
P S A
A N T I
N O T S
O I L
S P R A
U L E
L I
B
F O A L
A N C E
T H
A S S
R I O R
I G N I
E N
A
E L S
U R S
N
A B
O N T U
D A
T
O P
S
S S
L
A
R
T A
Y
G I
A M
P
F A
E I
T R
I
N G
G E
T
G O
O V
B E
A R
L I
D T
I
V
A
N
I
V
A
I
D
E
P
I
C
K
M
E
C
R
E
E
P
M O
E
A D
D E
E P
O
O T
P
S
S
U
A
R
Y
G
S
E
O K
S A D
V O
M A N
E
T
A
B
B E
R E C
N A R
A D U
S E
L
L
A R
Y E
S P R
U R B
P O I
T
O
O
R
E
A
L
E
M
A
I
L
M
E
S
O
L
E
M
N
G
O
T
A
C
E
C
A
S
H
L
A
S
T
S
G
U
I
N
E
A
N
A
R
M
Y
A
N
T
R
E
S
T
D
A
Y
THE COASTER THEATRE PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS
Fresh Oregon Hood
STRAWBERRIES
Available Now
Monday - Saturday
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
PICKED
D AI L Y!
Watch for us at the corner of
Marlin & 101 in Warrenton at
the Putman Pro-Lube Center
Call 503-359-5204 for more info.
Fo r m o re in fo rm a tio n , ca ll 503-359-5204
JUNE 16 - SEPTEMBER 2, 2017
JUNE 23 - SEPTEMBER 3, 2017
ALL PERFORMANCES BEGIN AT 7:30 P.M.
TICKETS: $20 OR $25
ALL PERFORMANCES BEGIN AT 7:30 P.M.
TICKETS: $20 OR $25
Sponsored by
The Ocean Lodge, Inn at Cannon Beach,
Lodges at Cannon Beach and Candi & Jon Holzgrafe
Sponsored by
The Ocean Lodge, Inn at Cannon Beach,
Lodges at Cannon Beach, Probuild/Milgard
and Leland E.G. Larson
108 N Hemlock Street,
Cannon Beach, OR
Tickets: 503-436-1242 or
coastertheatre.com