Such beauty in the darkest of times <3

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

“Our immortality comes through our children and their children. Through our roots and branches. The family is immortality. And Hitler has destroyed not just branches and roots, but entire family trees, forests. All of them, gone.”The year is 1943 and World War II Nazi-occupied Italy played its part in the persecution, deportation, and ultimate murder of the Jewish people. However, Amy Harmon manages to incorporate so much beauty in this very dark time. From Sand and Ash is full of contrasts: life/death, hope/defeat, courage/fear, compliance/rebellion, faith/doubt, love/rejection, desire/restraint... the list goes on. But such is this magical life – we cannot survive the depths without having at least a flicker of light, and even more so when the world is at war and a beautiful people are being destroyed simply because they exist.Amy Harmon has created incredibly human characters full of complexities. She has also replicated the palpable emotions that coincide with tragic times, but the themes of family, love, and resiliency shine through. For me, this was an incredibly rich reading experience that gave me hope. Hope that with every negative, a positive can be found and with every person full of evil intent, there will be another who will choose to do the right thing. I loved this book ♥My favorite quote:“Fear is strange. It settles on chests and seeps through skin, through layers of tissue, muscle, and bone and collects in a soul-sized black hole, sucking the joy out of life, the pleasure, the beauty. But not the hope. Somehow, the hope is the only thing resistant to the fear, and it is that hope that makes the next breath possible, the next step, the next tiny act of rebellion, even if that rebellion is simply staying alive.”

What other book might you compare From Sand and Ash to and why?

Jojo Moyes The Girl You Left Behind and Kristin Hannah The Nightingale. Similar wartime settings. Choosing to do the right thing. Themes of loyalty and family.

What does Cassandra Campbell bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Stunning accents.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"From sand and ash, rebirth. From sand and ash, new life. With every song and with every prayer, with every small rebellion, she vowed to push back, to make glass from the ashes." -Amy Harmon

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85 people found this helpful

Oh so sad and oh so annoying

*Cue mini violin playing because we're supposed to be super sad
I should just stick to historical fiction and not romance/historical fiction. Everything was sooo . . . Sticky? Philosophical? I don't know. I just know I didn't like it. I love WWII stories but this was more of a raunchy novel between a priest and Jew than a good WWII novel. I felt like the book was just trying so hard to make you cry and feel bad that it fell flat. I skipped through most of it and put the listening speed to double because it was just so predictably tragic and philosophical. I love love stories. I love tragic stories. I love tragic WWII/Holocaust love stories. So I should have loved this one, right? Wrong. It was just so 'neon sign flashing 'look how tragic we are''
If you like being told what to feel- than this is the book for you. I know I'm sounding harsh but man that was disappointing. Be warned there are a couple of sex scenes (involving a Catholic priest no less ew) and crude language and violence. I loved Amy Harmon's early work, but each new book makes me like her less and less. I'm done with her works, I've decided. The narrator was decent though.

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82 people found this helpful

Possibly the best audiobook I ever heard

I haven’t read a WWII era book since high school. I am not a lover of sad and ugly cry books. I read to be happy. But I read so many people saying that From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon was a favorite of the year that I decided I could use a change of pace, and I grabbed the Audible version. I’ve not read Amy Harmon before because she is known for ugly cries, but after listening to From Sand and Ash, I bought two more Amy Harmon audible books immediately.

First of all, I need to start by talking about the narration. This is one book where the audible version has got to be even better than the regular. The narrator did an AMAZING job of taking Eva from a young girl to a mature woman, as well as using Italian, Yiddish, German and French accents so perfectly it just enhanced an already incredible story.

Next, the story. Yes, it’s an epic forbidden romance, but it is SO MUCH MORE. It’s a history lesson disguised in a compelling, emotional story based on true events. There are a lot of stories that take place during the holocaust, but most take place in Germany or Poland. I honestly did not realize how many Italian Jews there were, and what happened to them during the war. It felt good to really learn something while doing what I love (reading), and this inspired me to pick up more books like this where I can learn and not just escape.

"Why do people hate us so much?"

Eva Roselli is Italian. Her family is Jewish, but they are not religious. They don’t attend temple, but they still follow the Jewish traditions. Angelo Bianco was 12 when he was sent from America to live with his grandparents who worked for the Roselli’s in Italy. At 12 he already was slated to be a Priest, going to Catholic school and then the seminary. There was no other path for him, it was what he was born and raised to do. Angelo and Eva grew up together. She loved him and he loved her, but knew he had to avoid any situation where that love gets out of control. His first commitment is to God, and as a Priest in training, there is no other love allowed.

"I never really thought about being Jewish until I started to be persecuted for it."

Amy Harmon did an excellent job of showing how little things that may seem like nothing at first can snowball into bigger and bigger things. To read about how first non-Jews couldn’t work for Jews, then Jews couldn’t own businesses or go to school, Jews couldn’t marry non-Jews, then Jews couldn’t vacation where they had their whole lives. Instead of running, the thoughts that it couldn’t get worse, or that the Pope would step in kept the Italian Jews in Italy waiting it out. But it did get worse. Much worse, as the Jews began to be rounded up.

"They can humiliate us and dehumanize us. But they cannot take our thoughts. They cannot take our talents. They cannot take our knowledge, or our memories, or our minds."

As the war gets worse and worse, somehow despite the horrors, Amy Harmon is able to weave hope into the story, and pride in the characters who did everything they could to help.

"Fear is strange.
It settles on chests and seeps through skin, through layers of tissue, muscle, and bone and collects in a soul-sized black hole, sucking the joy out of life, the pleasure, the beauty.
But not the hope.
Somehow, the hope is the only thing resistant to the fear, and it is that hope that makes the next breath possible, the next step, the next tiny act of rebellion, even if that rebellion is simply staying alive."

Angelo loves Eva. but he knows he can do more to help as a priest than anything else. I had no idea how much the Catholic Church did to help the Jews during the war. But the Nazis weren’t picky. They were rounding up priests and anyone who helped the Jews.

"Eva is just a girl. She wasn’t given a choice.
The Jewish people have been stripped of choice. They have been stripped of liberty. They have been stripped of dignity. And they cannot save themselves."

Who will help them? Angelo saw his Eva in every Jew. He worked tirelessly to help Jews, get them fake papers, get them out of Italy or hide them as best they could. But it wasn’t just the Jews who lived in fear, it was everyone. Still, Angelo lived his life to protect Eva. All he wanted was her to hide out and be safe.

Eva was so strong. There was no way, no matter how much she loved Angelo (even though she could never have him) that she would sit by and hide, so she fought and did everything possible to help fight the horrors.

My goodness. We think things are bad in the world? We think our lives suck? Read this and believe me, you will thank your lucky stars for everything we have. The fact that these horrors happened recently enough that people are still alive from that time is just unbelievable to me, and similar things still happen today.

From Sand and Ash was filled with suspense and action, but at the heart of it was the love between a Jewish girl and an Italian priest. It never felt sordid or wrong. In war, you grasp at anything to bring some light into your life, and their love was the only light they had.
"With our hands, we reach for things we shouldn't have and we grasp what isn't ours. The way I have always reached for you."

Likes:

•While the characters were fiction, the events were true.
•How much I learned about Italy in WWII.
•Gripping and emotional it was completely unputdownable.
•How despite the hopelessness and despair, there was always a thread of hope and love that ran through the story.
•The narration was some of the best I have ever heard with the narrator doing Italian, Yiddish, French and German accents.
•The way the music was tied into the story.
•There was just enough romance to make this a romance book, but it was way, way more than that.
•The priest and a woman part of the story never felt sordid or wrong.
•There was no shielding us from the horrors and brutality that really happened.

Dislikes:

•I obviously dislike that any of this happened in real life, but there is absolutely nothing to dislike from this book.

The Down & Dirty:
From Sand and Ash is one of the most important books I have read since I began blogging. I feel like everyone should read it. The more we know about the past, the more we can recognize if it starts again in the future. The horrors of WWII are not sugar coated in any way, and Amy Harmon transports you to Italy during all of the events. There was so much background, and you know the characters so well that you feel like you are Eva. I literally felt her fear, and as I write this, I am flashing back to moments in the book and I’m crying again. Being Jewish, this story also helped me understand a bit more of my parents, who were children during this time. But you don’t have to be Jewish to relate and connect to this book. I honestly think From Sand and Ash should be required reading for high school students the way The Diary of Anne Frank is for elementary.

My words can’t do a book like this justice, but I can tell you that it will not only be on my best of 2016 list, but my all-time favorite list. Amy Harmon is an author that has been recommended so many times. I have several of her books on my Kindle, and just purchased more of her audiobooks. If they are even half as good as From Sand to Ash they will be 5 star reads for me.

Rating 5+++ Stars, Narration 5+++ stars

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73 people found this helpful

An exquisite masterpiece in Historical Fiction

Definitely Amy Harmon’s finest work and I have enjoyed all of her books thus far. There were so many things I loved about this book but writing stands out the most. Amy Harmon’s storytelling was so intense, visceral and poignant. This story was set in Italy starting before the German invasion and lasted for the Nazi occupation of the Italy. It was such a dark and depressing historical period, but the author managed weave a tale of love, hope, faith and loyalty.

Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were childhood best friends despite being her being Jewish and him being Catholic. Despite their affection for each other, Angelo decided that he could best serve God as a priest.
“God makes me strong. He gives me courage. He gives me peace. He gives me purpose.”
As Angelo joined the priesthood, Eva began navigating life in Italy where Jews were stripped of every conceivable right of citizenship despite the Jews “making up 1% of the countries population”. At her darkest hour, Angelo took in Eva and some other family friends to hid them, but it endangered all the priests around.

Angelo was forced to consider what his life would be like if the Nazi’s were to find Eva and the other Jews that the priests were protecting. While Eva struggles to survive, she was also forced to deal with the fact that the man she loved chose to be a priest over a life with her.

This story was both inspiring, enlightening and emotionally POWERFUL. Every time I felt despondent, a gestured or an event occurred that contributed some reason for hope and encouragement.
“Hope is the only thing resistant to the fear, and it is the hope that makes the next breath possible, the next step, the next tiny act of rebellion, even if that rebellion is simply staying alive.”
The author didn’t mislead the readers by painting a rosy picture of war times. But those tendrils of devotion and faithfulness kept me optimistic as I listened to tale. The narrator Cassandra Campbell was excellent in her various accented voices. She was a great choice for this book.

I loved both Eva and Angelo for different reasons. Both were strong characters, loving, honest and altruistic. Eva though just stole my heart. She had a clarity about almost everything. She was decisive and even stubborn. Angelo was so endearing because he truly tried to honor his faith even if he had to sacrifice his own heart. I admired his commitment and his perseverance. The author did an amazing job developing these characters as well as the overall plot. I never felt that the author sacrificed the historical plight of the people in favor of a love story. It made everything feel so much more authentic and genuine. I am always amazed at the blessings that occurred despite immense suffering during the tragedies of war. This story was one of the best written historical fiction novels I have ever read.

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37 people found this helpful

Nice story.

I must be expecting too much from books. This had a nice story but I would have liked more - of what I do not know. It does shine some light on what happened to Jewish families under Nazi rule. Otherwise it is a love story.

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36 people found this helpful

A Good Book

It was a good book, although sometimes predictable, sometimes too coincidental. I did enjoy it though and many times found myself a little eager to get back to it. That is always a good sign. There is so much incredible sadness in any Holocaust novel and this was no exception. What I did find interesting (and disgusting) was the degree to which Jews in Italy had to withstand the same atrocities that their German counterparts did, although not to the same staggering numbers. Still it was way too much. I will never understand how human beings can be so incredibly evil toward one another.

Like so many Holocaust survivors, those who lived through it were able to pull together a happy life, even though their basic personhood would never be the same and so many of the people close to them had had their lives ended in Auschwitz, or some equally despicable place. I guess you could say this is a sad-happy novel, as one written on the lives of most holocaust survivors could be described.

Beautifully written and well narrated.

One little annoyance to me, however, was the many references to the music of Chopin by an accomplished violinist. Chopin almost exclusively wrote for the piano. His violin literature is minuscule. He was also referred to as a German composer which is erroneous. He was Polish. He is hardly the composer a violinist would dream of and cling to. There were so many other composers of much great violin music the author could have chosen.

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33 people found this helpful

Get on with it already........

I thought this was great at first, but it is just a love story more than anything. Too much religion and guilt etc. As a Catholic I got tired of all the guilt. Narration was too syrupy, and I usually like her.

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30 people found this helpful

Disappointed

The narrator was excellent, but after reading What the Wind Knows, I was expecting more. The Catholic portrayal was very inaccurate and sacrilegious, not to mention the sexual parts of the story. The former story was much better and much more historically accurate. I was expecting the same with this one, but sadly it was not even close. If you are Catholic this story will not only disappoint you, due to its religious and historical inaccuracies, but that the author felt the need to add little digs here and there about the church.

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28 people found this helpful

Silly, sappy romance novel

this was nothing more than a silly shallow story that dishonors the pain of the time period it is set in. so disappointing.

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13 people found this helpful

disappointing

It would have been an uplifting story if they (Antonio and Eva) had chosen heroic virtue and God over love and lust

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10 people found this helpful