The Light in the Ruins, Chris Bohjalian’s brilliantly crafted historical novel, begins 'on the first Tuesday of June in 1955,' in the voice of an anonymous killer who describes his lurid executions with a morbid insouciance... Setting his story in the glorious Italian hills south of Florence, the author switches back and forth from the mid-1940s, while the war is raging, to the mid-’50s, when the murders take place ... alternating time frame keeps the reader suspicious of everyone, but whether likable or loathsome, Bohjalian’s characters are utterly compelling ... Bohjalian repeatedly confronts us with the moral dilemmas of wartime ... In this novel, Bohjalian contemplates painful choices while offering a tour-de-force murder mystery, heartbreaking romance and a dazzling denouement that will tear your heart out.
Yes, over the first few pages, The Light in the Ruins has all the characteristics of a potboiler, a grisly whodunit. But as is always the case with a Chris Bohjalian novel, there is nothing typical about it ... The action shifts back and forth in time, from 1943 to 1955 ... As we learn more about the Rosatis, we also uncover layers about the detective investigating the case ... Tension builds as the killer prepares to strike again — even planning to kill the wife and children of the Rosatis' one surviving son. The denouement is dead solid perfect. Bohjalian has written another winner.
The Light in the Ruins elucidates, haunts and raises moral quandaries ...those aspects don't come together smoothly enough to make Chris Bohjalian's 15th novel the fascinating page-turner it aspires to be ... For long passages, the book offers a glimpse of intriguing, lesser-known aspects of World War II ... The family's wartime activities grow increasingly morally complex as the story unspools. These sections are the best pieces of the novel ... The novel's plotting is stronger than the writing, which is often repetitive and in need of better editing ... As a whodunit, the story is at its least effective. Bohjalian offers a few too many clues, and the conclusion is anti-climactic.
A storied Italian villa nestled into the picturesque Florence countryside and home to the tragedy bound Rosatis family forms the idyllic backdrop for Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel The Light in the Ruins ...work oscillates between events that took place in 1943 at the height of Italy’s involvement in World War II, and the inevitable heartbreaking repercussions of those actions brought to fruition in 1955 ... Playing between the events that lead to the shattering of the Rosati family in the 1940s and the intertwined lives of both the Rosatis and Serafina, Mr. Bohjalian builds a suspenseful novel that is only part murder mystery ...an engaging story that unspools in such a way as to keep the reader with her nose to the pages long after the light has actually faded.
The Light in the Ruins, his latest masterpiece, is set in Italy during World War II and jumps in time between 1943-44 and 1955 ... When the story jumps to 1955, we are faced with an apparent serial killer who is targeting the Rosati family ... Young Detective Serafina Bettini must battle her own ghosts from the war in order to protect the Rosati family before they are entirely wiped out ... What Bohjalian does best is to draw the reader deep into the drama and personal interplay and then hit you with an unexpected twist that changes your sensibilities and understanding of what is actually happening ... This is a terrific read that will transport both long-time fans and newcomers back in time to one of the most turbulent periods in Italian history.
In Bohjalian’s literary thriller, the ruin of the aristocratic Rosati family is triggered by Nazi interest in an Etruscan tomb on their estate, Villa Chimera. The action ricochets between the war years, when the Rosatis—Marchese Antonio, Marchesa Beatrice and their children, Marco, Vittore and Cristina—were unwilling hosts to Nazis and Fascists, and 1955... In 1955, Villa Chimera is still a pile of rubble the family cannot afford to repair, much less inhabit. As Serafina struggles with her own postwar nightmares, she must learn why the killer hates the Rosatis—only then can she identify him before the next Rosati dies. A soulful why-done-it.
An exploration of post-WWII Italy doubles as a murder mystery in this well-crafted novel from Bohjalian. In 1952 Florence, Francesca Rosati, a dress-shop worker, is brutally murdered by a killer who carves out her heart, and Detective Serafina Bettini is assigned to solve the homicide ... The investigation leads Serafina back to the former Rosati estate, and she learns that the family’s wartime record was more complicated than it appears ... Bohjalian tips his hand too early as to the killer’s identity, but otherwise delivers an entertaining historical whodunit.
