The acclaimed author of A Train in Winter returns with the final volume in her Resistance Quartet, which tells the true story of the women of the partisan resistance who fought against Italy’s fascist regime during World War II.
... meticulous research and eye for human detail ... This is a rich telling of some complex but fascinating history, not solely addressing the female story, but including it within the whole ... It is, however, Moorehead’s sensitive use of the inspiring if sometimes harrowing stories of Ada and her female comrades, Frida Malan, Silvia Pons and Bianca Serra, and the Jewish and partisan circles around them, including that of Primo Levi, that really brings new insight to this account of the liberation of Italy. A useful chronology and list of the principal characters, of which there are many, helps readers to keep track ... This brilliant book restores women to the heart of the Italian resistance story, making clear that they performed all the same activities as the men, while facing precisely the same dangers, if with supplementary goals ... This, at last, is their powerful story.
... [a] gripping story ... A House in the Mountains is exhaustively researched, which makes for some tough reading. The number of people, political parties and publications will challenge readers new to this phase of the war. But Moorehead artfully builds the tension as liberation approaches and partisans make a desperate last stand. She commiserates with her main characters when peace finally arrives and the new Italy looks 'very like the old one.'
... the book has a huge supporting cast: some are familiar because of later literary exploits (Primo Levi, Natalia Ginzurg and Oriana Fallaci), but even the minor characters—like the stubbornly kind nun of the city’s gruesome prison—are memorably portrayed ... The narrative is told with such verve that I frequently had goosebumps ... The melancholy coda, recounting what happened to the women—accidents, politicking, writing and addiction—completes a riveting read.
