The Chapel at the Edge of the World

An impressive debut novel follows, in gently paced flashbacks, a young Italian couple's experience of WWII. An accomplished artist and painter of church statues and frescos, Emilio suffers as a soldier and a prisoner of war in North Africa until he is shipped to a labor camp in the isolated Orkney Islands in Scotland. There he finds a rough camaraderie with fellow soldiers as they rebel against the strict discipline and eventually draw together to build a Catholic chapel out of scraps of construction material. Left behind, the teenaged Rosa finds purpose working for partisans in the city and in sheltering refugees at her mother's country hotel. Emilio's acceptance of his lot in wartime contrasts with Rosa's desire to grow and explore and the bitter helplessness she feels in the face of German ruthlessness. Though slow going at first, with the framing chapters unfortunately removing any suspense about the couple's fate (the story opens with Emilio and Rosa as long marrieds), the development of Emilio's and Rosa's separate paths is engaging, and the fictionalized true story of the Italian Chapel in the Orkneys genuinely captivating. (Jan.)