The Innocent Days of War

In this gripping coming-of-age novel, a group of young people’s lives and passions collide in unexpected ways as World War II transforms Italy and England.

Central Italy, on the eve of the Second World War. A group of young Italians find themselves in the midst of what will soon become a civil war. Among them is Stefano Portelli, a hopeful lawyer with a head full of utopias, in love with Eleonora. And there is his sister-in-law Nina, secretly linked to Sergio, a partisan leader.

Other lives run parallel to theirs: that of Alastair Ormiston, an English Royal Air Force Pilot, who adores Virginia Woolf’s books and dreams of the ideal companion. And that of Edna, his best friend who, in a London bombed by the Nazis, discovers herself and her happiness. If their paths intersect in a shocking way, shuffling the cards of history, it will be through the work of a destiny greater than them, burning them in a bonfire where everything is consumed–joy and pain together.

Author: Mario Fortunato
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Other Press (NY)
Published: 10/28/2025
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781635424140
Language: English