Echoes of War, by Australian author Tania Blanchard, is set in Calabria in Southern Italy, at the “toe” of the country’s boot-shaped peninsula.
The region is agriculturally rich and devoutly religious.
It is also fiercely independent, due to neglect by those in Rome who have long considered the region to be backward and poor.
Calabria is further renowned for its history of healing, where ancient rituals and the “old ways” are passed down from generation to generation, using “a combination of herbal treatments, common-sense remedies, superstition and the power of faith in God, Jesus, the Madonna and all of the saints of the Catholic Church” to help people feel better.
As the first-person narrator Giulia has learned: “There were many ways to treat illness, but if a patient didn’t believe in what you were doing, it was much harder – if not impossible – to heal them.”
Giulia’s dream is to become a healer like her beloved Nonna, but her father’s wishes – that she gets married and settles down – cannot be disobeyed.
Thus married at the age of 17 to a man of her father’s choosing, Giulia’s life is shadowed by other upheavals, from natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis to Mussolini’s fascism and Italy’s brutal conquest of Abyssinia in 1935.
Not to mention the imminent war that will turn the whole world upside down.
Further complicating the survival of Giulia’s farming community are the increasingly intolerable demands of corrupt government officials.
Then there are the ‘Ndrangheta, the powerful organised crime group “more secretive and less well-known than the Sicilian Mafia, but remained a part of the everyday fabric in Calabria”.
In Giulia’s words: “The ‘Ndrangheta’s strict code of honour, loyalty and secrecy made them both a powerful ally and a vengeful enemy. They often gave assistance to communities in trouble… But with every favour afforded, there was an obligation. My parents always told us to stay away from the ‘Ndrangheta, no matter what they did for the community. Silence was golden.”
Meanwhile, as the Allied powers and Hitler’s Germany fight for dominance over Italy, Giulia becomes involved in the provision of medical assistance in war-damaged towns and the battle zones of both partisan and military forces.
It is through her eyes that we observe a country embroiled in war – the brutal destruction and killing, the senseless suffering and death, the reduction of men, women and children to animals whose instinct is to survive at whatever cost.
This is a powerful story sustained by strong female characters, women who emerge from the shackles of traditions to challenge their assigned status within family and community and to strive, with courage and determination, towards more independent futures.
The women in Qiulia’s life, from her grandmother, mother and aunt to her sisters, friends and mentors, are her role models.
Together, they uphold a world full of love, compassion and mutual support.
A book full of universal themes, Echoes of War is inspired by the author’s family history.
Highly recommended.
