Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Girl from Venice
Martin Cruz Smith
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Girl from Venice
Martin Cruz Smith
Review by Priscilla Comen
“The Girl from Venice” by Martin Cruz Smith is an intense story about a fisherman, Cenzo, during the Nazi occupation of Venice in 1945. He’s fishing in the Venice lagoon when he discovers a girl’s body floating near his boat. She comes to life and Cenzo’s adventure begins. The girl, Guilia, is the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family. Her parents have been killed because of a traitor whom Guilia can identify. Since the Nazis are chasing her, she hides on Cenzo’s boat, and he teaches her how to fish in order to disguise her as a young boy helping on his boat. She is well-educated and speaks three languages.
Cenzo enlists the help of his friend, Russo, also a fisherman, in finding the partisans who can take Guilia to the Americans. But before Russo appears in his boat, Cenzo kisses Guilia passionately. Cenzo and his brother Georgio are not on friendly terms because Georgio had lured Cenzo’s wife away and then stood by when the movie set she was working on was bombed by allied planes. Georgio was the only survivor. Cenzo has never recovered from his grief.
When Georgio shows up at the dock flying a prop sea plane, Cenzo is suspicious and not welcoming. Georgio takes Cenzo in the plane to a nearby town, Salo, to meet a movie producer, Otto, and a diplomat’s wife, Maria Paz, who want to help him find Guilia. She has been missing for ten days without a word. Russo has been murdered by the Nazis and Cenzo fears her fate is the same. Author Cruz Smith cranks up the tension as the Germans, now losing the war, do anything they want.
Cenzo learns that Maria Paz is an expert forger who forges Swiss passports for Nazis who want to flee. Cenzo is rightfully disgusted that she would do this. Otto says he can help find Guilia. He wants to film the end of the Nazi occupation of Venice. Maria also makes copies of old valuable violins and Cenzo finds her in her workshop. Cruz Smith adds Mussolini and his mistress to the mix of characters to make this a realistic fantasy. When a small plane lands to get Mussolini to safety, the Nazis throw bars of gold into the plane’s interior. Cenzo jumps in and takes off. He dumps the gold bars into the lagoon to lighten the weight and lands in the bartender’s garden.
Will Cenzo find Guilia alive? Will she identify the traitor who turned in her parents to the Nazis? Find this fast-moving adventure on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
Cenzo enlists the help of his friend, Russo, also a fisherman, in finding the partisans who can take Guilia to the Americans. But before Russo appears in his boat, Cenzo kisses Guilia passionately. Cenzo and his brother Georgio are not on friendly terms because Georgio had lured Cenzo’s wife away and then stood by when the movie set she was working on was bombed by allied planes. Georgio was the only survivor. Cenzo has never recovered from his grief.
When Georgio shows up at the dock flying a prop sea plane, Cenzo is suspicious and not welcoming. Georgio takes Cenzo in the plane to a nearby town, Salo, to meet a movie producer, Otto, and a diplomat’s wife, Maria Paz, who want to help him find Guilia. She has been missing for ten days without a word. Russo has been murdered by the Nazis and Cenzo fears her fate is the same. Author Cruz Smith cranks up the tension as the Germans, now losing the war, do anything they want.
Cenzo learns that Maria Paz is an expert forger who forges Swiss passports for Nazis who want to flee. Cenzo is rightfully disgusted that she would do this. Otto says he can help find Guilia. He wants to film the end of the Nazi occupation of Venice. Maria also makes copies of old valuable violins and Cenzo finds her in her workshop. Cruz Smith adds Mussolini and his mistress to the mix of characters to make this a realistic fantasy. When a small plane lands to get Mussolini to safety, the Nazis throw bars of gold into the plane’s interior. Cenzo jumps in and takes off. He dumps the gold bars into the lagoon to lighten the weight and lands in the bartender’s garden.
Will Cenzo find Guilia alive? Will she identify the traitor who turned in her parents to the Nazis? Find this fast-moving adventure on the new fiction shelf of your community library.