Book discussion: 'A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism'
Blackwell’s is delighted to be welcoming Caroline Moorehead for an afternoon talk, to discuss her book ‘A House in the Mountains’, exploring an extraordinary story of four courageous women who helped form the Italian Resistance during the Second World War.

Synopsis:

In the late summer of 1943, when Italy changed sides in the War and the Germans – now their enemies – occupied the north of the country, an Italian Resistance was born. Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca were four young Piedmontese women who joined the Resistance, living clandestinely in the mountains surrounding Turin. They were not alone. Between 1943 and 1945, as the Allies battled their way north, thousands of men and women throughout occupied Italy rose up and fought to liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators.

The bloody civil war that ensued across the country pitted neighbour against neighbour, and brought out the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together as a coherent fighting force. The women’s contribution was invaluable – they fought, carried messages and weapons, provided safe houses, laid mines and took prisoners. Ada’s house deep in the mountains became a meeting place and refuge for many of them.

The death rattle of Mussolini’s two decades of Fascist rule – with its corruption, greed and anti-Semitism was unrelentingly violent, but for the partisan women it was also a time of camaraderie and equality, pride and optimism. They had proved, to themselves and to the world, what resolve, tenacity and, above all, exceptional courage could achieve.

Caroline Moorehead is the biographer of Bertrand Russell, Freya Stark, Iris Origo and Martha Gellhorn. Her book on the French Resistance, ‘Village of Secrets’, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2014. Her most recent book, ‘A Bold and Dangerous Family’, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award.

This talk is free to attend and all are welcome, please register your interest in advance. For all enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or contact our customer services department on 01865 333623.
Date: 3 December 2019, 15:00 (Tuesday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2019)
Venue: Blackwell's Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ
Speaker: Caroline Moorehead (Author)
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/caroline-moorehead-a-house-in-the-mountains-tickets-77979628167
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Laura Spence