My Father's House: AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS (Rome Escape Line Book 1)

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Working in real time on Christmas Eve 1943 leading up to a crucial operation across Rome, the story is enhance by later interviews with some of the participants remembering their wartime exploits. Based on a true story, My Father's House is a powerful thriller from a master of historical fiction. It is an unforgettable novel of love, sacrifice and what it means to be human in the most extreme circumstances.

Chapters tell the story about what happened in 1943, but the details are told through the various points-of-view of members of the choir twenty years later. This allows them to also to share their personal reflections about what happened. My Father's House is the first book in a new trilogy. I was drawn to the novel as I know so little about Italian resistance and the plight of POWs held by the Germans in Italy. Most novels I have read have centred on Paris and escape routes in France.

Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptman, who appears to be the fictional stand in for the real life Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler, had Hugh and those who associated with him, in his sights, meaning that Hugh and the rescue line were under constant surveillance while they accomplished so much right under the noses of the enemy. So many lives were lost, so many lives were saved. It's a remarkable story, told through mostly fictional retellings in later years. The story can get overly descriptive and wordy at times, these characters can be a chatty bunch as they reminisce, but their stories do put us right there with Hugh and the people he worked with so closely. I look forward to the other two books in this trilogy. You once said: “To some extent I think the Irish diaspora is more interesting than the Irish at home, because they’ve had to survive so much. I think people who leave the tribe are always more interesting than the people who stay. Wonderful things happen when people come out of their group, their private inheritance.” How formative for you as a writer were your years abroad?

Reading stories set in WWII Europe is never easy. The Holocaust, the devastation of war and the plight of civilians unable to escape war-torn lands are always deeply affecting. I appreciate stories that shed light on that era, even more so when I’m learning something new from them. I had been unaware of the Rome Escape Line and Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty before reading this book. The author also references true events such as the Ardeatine Massacre of 1944. The Author’s Note provides a list of references for those who want to read more about the true events that inspired this novel. This is my first time reading this author and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” Joseph Connor writes a literary WW2 historical novel, inspired by real events and people, set in Nazi German occupied Rome in the run up to Christmas 1943, and the neutral state of the Vatican City. Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, aka Ugo and Hughdini, is tasked with visiting the horrors of the Italian POW camps, an appointment the Nazis thought would not raise the terrifying conditions as the Irish were known to despise the English. How wrong they were, for the courageous Hugh tries to improve the conditions and raise the morale of the prisoners, many of whom were mere boys, whilst remorselessly castigating those running the nightmare camps. However, he is soon prevented from carrying out his duties by a Vatican fearful of the Nazis threat of occupying their city, although for Hugh, neutrality is an extremist stance, without which no tyranny can flourish.