A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism

Today’s Nonfiction post is on A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism by Caroline Moorehead. It is 416 pages and is published by Harper. The cover has a picture of three of the women on it. The intended reader is someone who is interested in World War II history and women’s history. There is foul language, discussion of rape and sexual abuse, and lots of violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead. 

From the dust jacket- In the late summer of 1943, when Italy broke with the Germans and joined the Allies after suffering catastrophic military losses, an Italian Resistance was born. Four young Piedmontese women—Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca—living secretly in the mountains surrounding Turin, risked their lives to overthrow Italy’s authoritarian government. They were among the thousands of Italians who joined the Partisan effort to help the Allies liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators. What made this partisan war all the more extraordinary was the number of women—like this brave quartet—who swelled its ranks.

The bloody civil war that ensued pitted neighbor against neighbor, and revealed the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together into a coherent fighting force. But the death rattle of Mussolini’s two decades of Fascist rule—with its corruption, greed, and anti-Semitism—was unrelentingly violent and brutal.

Drawing on a rich cache of previously untranslated sources, prize-winning historian Caroline Moorehead illuminates the experiences of Ada, Frida, Silvia, and Bianca to tell the little-known story of the women of the Italian partisan movement fighting for freedom against fascism in all its forms, while Europe collapsed in smoldering ruins around them. 

Review- A great overview of the Italian war front and what information we can find on the women who fought there. Moorehead, who is an excellent writer and researcher, turns her eye to Italy> There is so much information going on in this book at times it can be overwhelming but the women are barely there. At least that is what I felt like. I know that most of the problem is what the people in power at the time did not understand or see what the women give to be free but that makes this book less about them more about the italian front in general. That said it was interesting and I have never really read anything about Italy after it fell and what happened to the people who were trapped with the Italian fascists and the Nazis. Not my favorite of her books but still a solid read. 

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.