The Italian Ballerina by Kristy CambronMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishers for this advanced copy (even if it did take me much longer to get to it than I intended!)
This book taught me so many new things about WWII that I never knew. So many historical fiction books are focused on Germany or France during the war, but this one is set mostly in Italy. With converging storylines, this book jumps between present day and various years between 1939 and 1945. It follows two American medics, a British ballerina, and a young Jewish girl, as well as the grandchildren of one of the medics and the child in present time.
Before this book I had never heard of Syndrome K or the hospital at Fatebenefratelli in Rome. A fake contagion was invented to hide Jewish people from the Nazis in plain sight. The Jewish people were diagnosed with Syndrome K and the Nazis wanted no part in catching a potentially deadly contagion. While the main characters are fictional, many of the people mentioned in the historical timeline were real. I really enjoyed the "extra information" at the end of the book with more details about the war in Italy.
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