The Chapel at the Edge of the World

Synopsis: Emilio and Rosa are childhood sweethearts, engaged to be married. But it is 1942 and the war has taken Emilio far from Italy, to a tiny Orkney island where he is a POW. Rosa must wait for him to return and help her mother run the family hotel on the shores of Lake Como, in Italy. Feeling increasingly frustrated with his situation, Emilio is inspired by the idea of building a chapel on the barren island. The prisoners band together to create an extraordinary building out of little more than salvaged odds and ends and homemade paints. Whilst Emilio's chapel will remain long after the POW camp has been left to the sheep, will his love for Rosa survive the hardships of war and separation? For Rosa is no longer the girl that he left behind. She is being drawn further into the Italian resistance movement and closer to danger, as friendships and allegiances are ever complicated by the war. Human perseverance and resilience are at the heart of this strong debut and the small Italian chapel remains, as it does in reality on the island of Lamb's Holm, as a symbol of these qualities.

Review: This was a bit of a slow burner, in fact I'm not sure it ever caught fire. It took me quite a long time to get the characters fixed in my mind and I don't think I ever understood them completely but then I think that was a reflection of the austere times they were living in, they were quite secretive and introspective. Emilio is sent abroad to Africa to fight for Mussolini during WWII and his fiancé - Rosa - is left behind in Lake Como. Emilio and his fellow soldiers are soon captured and are due to be transported as POW's to India but fearing another hot climate, along with it's attendant flies and disease, he is able to wangle a favour from a British corporal (Emilio is a painter and becomes popular among his captors by painting little portraits of their loved one's from photo's) and secures a place on a ship bound for the Orkney Islands, Scotland (to work on the Churchill Barriers.) Struggling to cope with heat is one thing but the alternative proves to be, if anything, more oppressive. When they land at Orkney they are overwhelmed by the sheer desolation of the place, it's the colour of concrete and the wind, which blows fiercely every day, is like a wall that hits you in the face every time you turn a corner. The sky and sea are a mutinous grey, the temperatures are freezing and the landscape is barren and flat as no trees can survive. It's a million miles away from the beauty and climate of Lake Como.

Rosa meanwhile is at home, both living with and helping out her mother at their hotel. She is a little confused regarding her feelings for Emilio, she thinks about his return and their marriage and feels suffocated by it. Italy is now under German occupation and everyone's movements are watched. The hotel is a favourite haunt of the German officers so caution is needed. Rosa finds a job at a little print shop and there meets a childhood friend of hers and Emilio's - Pietro - with whom she becomes incredibly close and it's through this friendship that she learns of, and becomes involved with, resistance work. Her little errands for the resistance become increasingly risky especially as there is a German officer at the hotel who has taken a shine to her and who always seems to be watching.

Rosa's letters to Emilio become more and more general and less and less personal, letters about the hotel guests and the local flora and fauna. Emilio is depressed and demoralized but a small ray of light occurs when the new CO of the camp announces that they can convert an old Nissan hut into a chapel. Nobody is particularly excited by this but Emilio is inspired when he reads a newspaper article about a girl who made a wedding dress out of seaweed and custard powder. His enthusiasm soon rubs off on the others and they begin work on the transformation. Not only will it give them somewhere to worship it will give them something to do as they wait to be transported back home. By this time they are no longer prisoners in the official sense but, Germany still has occupation of Italy, and there is no knowing how long it will be before they return home. Hopes are raised and dashed continually.

It was a good read, nothing particularly enthralling but quietly compelling in it's own way. I didn't feel there was enough descriptions of how the POW's built the exquisite little chapel, when you look at the pictures of the real chapel it's just breathtaking. That prisoners could create such a beautiful work of art out of nothing but scraps and salvage is amazing and should have been described in more detail. Also I felt some of the sting went out of the tale by having the aged Rosa and Emilio talking at the beginning of the book ... obviously you knew that nothing particularly catastrophic was going to befall them. The book cover however is beautiful, probably my favourite so far.