Daughter of Genoa Summary: WWII Romance of Quiet Courage
Introduction
In the spring of 1944, Genoa lives under air raids, checkpoints, and the constant threat of deportation.
Anna Pastorino, a thirty-year-old widow of half-Jewish heritage, survives under a false name after Allied bombs destroy her flat.
Daughter of Genoa by Kat Devereaux follows Anna into a clandestine rescue network run out of a small print shop, where forged papers mean the difference between life and death. The novel draws on a true story and real historical figures.
TL;DR: What You Need to Know
- Setting: Nazi-occupied Genoa, April to June 1944, after the September 1943 German takeover of northern Italy.
- Premise: A widowed half-Jewish woman joins DELASEM, hand-writing false identity cards for hunted Jews.
- Key figures: Massimo Teglio, the real-life aviator known as “Mr X,” and Father Vittorio, a terminally ill Jesuit forger.
- Core threads: Hidden identity, quiet civilian resistance, a wartime love affair, and the cost of moral compromise.
- Structure: 37 chapters alternating Anna’s first-person voice with Vittorio’s third-person perspective.
- Ending: A planned escape to Switzerland and a final act of self-sacrifice.
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Daughter of Genoa at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Fiction / World War II Resistance Drama
- Core Narrative Tropes: Secret identity and forged papers, found family in the resistance, forbidden or unrequited love, dual perspective, self-sacrifice
- Tone & Atmosphere: Claustrophobic, suspenseful, poignant, and reflective
- Primary Conflict: A half-Jewish widow and an underground rescue network forge papers under constant threat of Gestapo raids and bombardment
- Pacing Style: Character-driven, slow-burn tension moving chronologically through spring and summer 1944
- Book Structure: A prologue, 37 numbered chapters, and closing author’s notes, alternating Anna’s first-person voice with Vittorio’s third-person perspective
- ISBN: 978-0063389984 (ISBN-10: 0063389983)
- Pages: 272
- Publisher: Harper Perennial
Who Is Daughter of Genoa For?
This book suits readers of World War II historical fiction, particularly stories set in occupied Italy after the September 1943 armistice.
It will appeal to those drawn to civilian resistance networks, document forgery, and escape routes rather than battlefield action.
Readers who prefer character-driven narratives with a romantic thread will find a slow-burn structure built on intimate dialogue and alternating perspectives.
Those interested in the real historical figures behind DELASEM, including Massimo Teglio and Don Francesco Repetto, will find them woven directly into the plot.
The novel also fits readers who want a contained, single-city setting with a compressed timeline of roughly three months.
Daughter of Genoa Summary: The Full Story
Spoiler warning: this section describes the plot, including the ending.
Anna Pastorino was born Anna Levi, the daughter of an anti-fascist literature professor and a Scottish mother.
Her father lost his university chair in 1931 rather than swear loyalty to Mussolini, and the family eventually emigrated to New York without her.
Anna stayed in Genoa and married Stefano Pastorino, a naval architecture student. She took a secretarial job with a wealthy fascist shipbuilder, Commendatore Giovanni Battista Marinaio.
After the 1938 Racial Laws, Marinaio dismissed Anna and accused her of stealing shipyard blueprints. When Stefano confronted him, Marinaio spread the slander to Stefano’s seafaring father.
Stefano took a post on the merchant vessel Antonio Montaldo, which was torpedoed off the Spanish coast. Anna was left widowed, impoverished, and alone.
By April 1944 she is living in the Carignano district as “Marta Ricci.” A bomb destroys her flat, and she emerges from a shelter in shock.
A Red Cross nurse named Dora and a Jesuit priest, Father Vittorio, come to her aid. Vittorio takes her to the Tipografia Guichard in via degli Armeni, a print shop run by Silvia and Bernardo Guichard, Waldensian Protestants who shelter refugees.
The couple give Anna a hidden room and an escape rope into the courtyard. Determined not to remain passive, she insists on working.
Massimo Teglio, the real-life Jewish aviator and DELASEM leader known as “Mr X,” recruits her into the forgery operation. Anna hand-writes false personal details on counterfeit identity cards, while Vittorio imitates municipal signatures and the Guichards print blanks and apply stamps.
Over the following weeks, two relationships shape her life. She grows close to Father Vittorio, who suffers from an untreated respiratory illness later diagnosed as a massive pleural effusion caused by recurrent tuberculosis.
Vittorio secretly falls in love with Anna but holds to strict spiritual discipline. Meanwhile, Anna becomes the lover of Massimo Teglio, whose suave persona conceals personal tragedy: his wife is dead, his daughter is hidden in Rapallo, and his sister’s family was deported to Auschwitz.
The tension breaks when Vittorio repeats a phrase used by his estranged father. Anna realizes the priest who rescued her is the son of Commendatore Marinaio, the man who ruined her life.
She forgives him and explains the past, leaving Vittorio crushed by guilt. Weakened by illness, he later encounters his real father at the ruined Marinaio shipyard and rejects the Commendatore’s offer of shelter at the family villa in Albaro.
Massimo arranges a guaranteed escape route for Anna to Switzerland through Red Cross contacts. She begs him to come with her, but he refuses, insisting he must stay to lead DELASEM’s work.
Before the transport can leave, a security compromise threatens the network. Massimo triggers “Plan B” and orders Anna, Silvia, and Bernardo to flee to Torre Pellice in the Waldensian valleys of Piedmont.
Silvia burns Anna’s forged papers. Disguised as Silvia’s housemaid, Anna passes German checks at Brignole station and boards the train to safety.
Vittorio plans to hide in the leper ward at San Martino Hospital to spare his colleagues from Gestapo scrutiny. As he leaves the Jesuit house at the Gesù, German military police surround the building searching for Don Francesco Repetto.
In a final act of self-sacrifice, Vittorio identifies himself as Repetto, giving the real Don Francesco and Massimo Teglio time to escape. The prologue reveals that Anna, writing in 1948, still grieves Vittorio while the Commendatore survived the war free.
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Characters in Daughter of Genoa
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Anna Pastorino (Anna Levi, alias “Marta Ricci”) | The protagonist and narrator, a half-Scottish, half-Italian widow who forges identity cards for DELASEM. |
| Father Vittorio | A forty-two-year-old Jesuit priest with terminal tuberculosis who escorts refugees and signs forged cards. |
| Massimo Teglio (“Mr X”) | A Jewish aviator and real historical figure who leads DELASEM’s northern rescue network. |
| Silvia Guichard | A Waldensian woman who shelters refugees above her print shop and assists in producing documents. |
| Bernardo Guichard | Silvia’s husband, a Waldensian typographer who prints blank identity cards. |
| Don Francesco Repetto | A real historical figure serving as secretary to the Archbishop and operational director of DELASEM in Genoa. |
| Cardinal Pietro Boetto | The Jesuit Archbishop of Genoa who sponsors DELASEM and shields Jewish refugees. |
| Commendatore Giovanni Battista Marinaio | Vittorio’s estranged father and Anna’s former employer, a fascist shipbuilder who falsely accused her of theft. |
| Stefano Pastorino | Anna’s late husband, a naval architecture student killed when his merchant ship was torpedoed. |
| Signora Pittaluga | Anna’s landlady in Carignano, who demands inflated rent and threatens police involvement. |
| Nurse Dora | A Red Cross volunteer who finds Anna after the bombing and connects her to Father Vittorio. |
| Dr. Rostan | A Waldensian doctor who diagnoses Vittorio’s condition and drains fluid from his chest. |
| Fulvio | An elderly man who shares brandy with Vittorio on a bench in piazza Corvetto. |
| Jacopo Levi and Miriam MacPhail | Anna’s parents, who emigrated to New York with her younger brother. |
| Filippo Levi | Anna’s aviation-obsessed younger brother. |
| Brother Carlo | A junior Jesuit coadjutor brother and assistant librarian at the Gesù. |
| Tiberio | The orange cat at the Tipografia Guichard. |
Summary by Chapter
Spoiler warning: the following outlines all 37 chapters plus the prologue.
The book contains a prologue and 37 numbered chapters, framed by an “Essential Information” section and author’s notes.
Prologue: In 1948, Anna reflects in a mental letter on her hatred for Commendatore Marinaio. She notes that he survived the war ruined but free, while Father Vittorio died.
Chapter 1: In 1944 Genoa, Anna lives in a cramped Carignano flat under an alias. Her landlady Signora Pittaluga demands overdue rent and hints at police trouble. That night Anna eats her last tin of sardines and flees to a public shelter during an air raid.
Chapter 2: At dawn, Father Vittorio searches for the frightened woman he spotted. Nurse Dora enlists his help for “Marta Ricci,” who collapsed near her bombed flat. Recognizing Anna, Vittorio promises to find her shelter.
Chapter 3: Vittorio leads Anna to the Tipografia Guichard in via degli Armeni. The Waldensian couple Bernardo and Silvia give her a back room, tea, and a bathroom escape ladder. Anna reflects on the risk her hosts are taking.
Chapter 4: Vittorio returns to the Jesuit house above the Gesù and reports to Don Francesco Repetto. Don Francesco urges him to rest his severe cough. Vittorio ignores the advice and reorganizes the library through the night.
Chapter 5: After sleeping for days, Anna recovers and insists on being useful. She corrects errors in Bernardo’s sales ledgers. When Vittorio visits, she offers to help with the covert operation rather than feel helpless.
Chapter 6: Anna recounts her past in a mental letter to Commendatore Marinaio. Her father lost his professorship in 1931 for refusing the loyalty oath, and her family emigrated without her. She married Stefano and took a secretarial job with Marinaio in 1934.
Chapter 7: Massimo Teglio visits the print shop, and Anna recognizes him from her brother’s scrapbooks. He brings a ration card and cash, explains safety protocols, and promises books. Anna finds herself drawn to him.
Chapter 8: Teglio returns after verifying Anna’s identity and warns her about Gestapo interrogation methods. He recruits her to hand-write forged identity cards and gives her a Sherlock Holmes paperback.
Chapter 9: At the Curia, Don Francesco assigns Vittorio to forgery work to reduce his physical strain. Vittorio marks the locations of hidden Jewish refugees across Genoa on a city map.
Chapter 10: Vittorio arrives with ink, pens, and a copy of Brighton Rock. Anna writes card details while he imitates municipal signatures. They talk in English about his training in London and Wales.
Chapter 11: Anna finds Teglio stamping forged cards and takes over the task to speed the process. They share brandy from Silvia’s cabinet and invent imaginary strolls through the Galleria Mazzini.
Chapter 12: Nurse Dora delivers Anna’s completed identity card with a Caltanissetta police stamp. The next morning Vittorio brings a new forgery list and more conversation about literature and their mothers.
Chapter 13: Anna and Teglio check forged cards against refugees’ photographs in the kitchen. A photograph resembling her father triggers panic, and Teglio teaches her a methodical inspection routine to stay composed.
Chapter 14: Anna and Teglio become a synchronized forgery team, continuing their imaginary-excursion game. Anna realizes she is falling in love with him, while Vittorio notices her tension and offers quiet encouragement.
Chapter 15: Vittorio struggles with his feelings for Anna, recalling novitiate advice on chastity. He enforces emotional distance and silence during their work, taking refuge in his breviary.
Chapter 16: Anna voices concern to Silvia about Vittorio’s cough. An afternoon raid forces Anna, Silvia, and the cat Tiberio into a shelter. They return to news that the Archbishop’s Palace took a direct hit.
Chapter 17: Suffering night sweats and chest tightness, Vittorio consults Dr. Rostan on Bernardo’s urging. The doctor examines him, diagnoses a massive pleural effusion, and warns it could be recurrent tuberculosis or cancer.
Chapter 18: Dr. Rostan drains fluid from Vittorio’s chest with a needle, bringing relief. Realizing his illness is terminal, Vittorio sits on a bench in piazza Corvetto, where an elderly man named Fulvio shares brandy and company.
Chapter 19: Anna comes to terms with her love for Teglio. He arrives in the corridor, calls her by her real name, and they embrace and make love for the first time.
Chapter 20: While helping Silvia cook pancotto, Anna receives a gentle warning about loving a man in dangerous resistance work. That night she lies awake missing Teglio.
Chapter 21: Vittorio wakes with temporary relief but notices severe emaciation. Don Francesco asks him to meet a Polish Jewish mother and three children arriving at Brignole station. He guides them to a safe house in via Peschiera.
Chapter 22: Plagued by skin irritation, Vittorio calls Dr. Rostan from a bar and meets Fulvio again. He confesses his unrequited love for “Marta,” then receives a reconstructed forgery list from Don Francesco.
Chapter 23: Vittorio arrives at the print shop looking improved and works through the list with Anna over tea. Anna is glad to see him better but preoccupied with her feelings for Teglio.
Chapter 24: Seeing Anna’s expression when Teglio is mentioned, Vittorio accepts that her heart belongs to “Mr X.” Anna catches him on the stairs to urge him to rest, and he later breaks down before Fulvio.
Chapter 25: Teglio gives Anna a copy of Arsène Lupin. In her mental letter, Anna recalls how Marinaio reneged on his promises in November 1938 and dismissed her to appease Fascist clients.
Chapter 26: Anna and Teglio share brief affectionate moments between tasks, discussing his years as a WWI and civil seaplane pilot. He tells her he would take her home if it were safe, and she says she would agree.
Chapter 27: Teglio reveals his hidden daughter in Rapallo and the deportation of his sister Margherita’s family from Montecatini. Anna also learns how he warned worshippers away during the November 1939 synagogue raid.
Chapter 28: Vittorio suffers a relapse, oversleeps, and misses morning Mass. Teglio finds him slumped in the Gesù parlour and insists he rest, while Vittorio quietly prepares for death.
Chapter 29: A weak and disoriented Vittorio stumbles past German patrols to the print shop. Silvia diagnoses severe anemia, gives him an iron tonic, and makes him lie down on the parlour sofa.
Chapter 30: Vittorio repeats a phrase his father used, and Anna realizes he is Commendatore Marinaio’s son. She tells him how Marinaio falsely accused her of theft and ruined her husband.
Chapter 31: Vittorio listens as Anna describes Stefano’s confrontation with the Commendatore, the slander spread to Captain Pastorino, and Stefano’s fatal voyage. He holds her hand and expresses shame for his family.
Chapter 32: Anna explains how Captain Pastorino refused to help her after Stefano’s death, leaving her destitute until Vittorio rescued her. He leaves shaken, and Anna asks his forgiveness.
Chapter 33: Vittorio meets Fulvio one last time before returning to the Gesù. Don Francesco is praying after Gestapo arrests following the Passo del Turchino massacre, and advises Vittorio to stay on Church property.
Chapter 34: Teglio tells Anna he has arranged an escape route to Switzerland through Red Cross contacts. When she hesitates, he recounts his sister’s deportation and insists she take the route so he can focus on DELASEM.
Chapter 35: Waking from nightmares of his father, Vittorio walks to the ruined Marinaio shipyard. He meets the Commendatore, rejects the offer of the family villa, and confesses the encounter to Don Francesco and Teglio.
Chapter 36: Teglio brings news of a network compromise and triggers “Plan B.” Silvia burns Anna’s forged card, and Anna disguises herself as a housemaid to pass German checks at Brignole station and reach Torre Pellice.
Chapter 37: Vittorio packs a bag to hide in the leper ward at San Martino Hospital. As he leaves the Gesù, German soldiers searching for Don Francesco Repetto stop him, and he claims to be Repetto to save his friend and DELASEM.
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What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Identity and Forgery | Counterfeit cards, false seals from southern towns, and code names like “Mr X” and “Marta Ricci” keep people alive. Anna’s real lineage as Anna Levi remains hidden under totalitarian racial laws. |
| Everyday Courage | Typographers, priests, a Red Cross nurse, and a widowed secretary run a secret press, hide refugees, and transport funds while facing Marassi prison or execution. |
| Moral Compromise | Jacopo Levi refuses the 1931 oath, Anna once worked for a fascist employer, and Massimo Teglio uses an old aviation connection to Italo Balbo. Vittorio chooses sacrifice over safety. |
| Love and Grief in Wartime | Anna carries grief for Stefano, begins a love affair with Teglio, and remains the object of Vittorio’s silent devotion. Books, tea, and shared meals punctuate the destruction. |
| Complicity versus Personal Conscience | Commendatore Marinaio aligns with Fascist power for profit, while Cardinal Boetto, Don Francesco Repetto, Vittorio, and the Waldensian community act at personal risk. |
Books Like Daughter of Genoa
- Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism by Alexander Stille: A non-fiction account cited by Devereaux as a source, covering the real exploits of Massimo Teglio and DELASEM in wartime Genoa.
- Escape to Tuscany by Kat Devereaux: The author’s debut, with dual timelines, Italian WWII resistance, and hidden historical secrets.
- The Postcard by Anne Berest: A historical novel about Jewish identity, deportation records, and survival under totalitarian rule.
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: Female resistance workers, forged documents, and escape networks in occupied Europe.
- The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes: Resistance through literature, secret networks, and covert operations against fascist regimes.
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Quotes from Daughter of Genoa
“It’s extraordinary how the most unpleasant things stay with us the longest.”
“I’m in danger because of who I am. I don’t see how I can make it any worse by what I do. If the Germans find me, they’ll send me away regardless.”
“We all compromise, signora Ricci. We all deal with people we would rather avoid, especially when it means helping ourselves and others.”
“Every person we manage to help is a victory. We cannot change our situation, but we can do our best to improve it. That is within our power, at least.”
“You take the first shift.”
“By the way, I don’t mind you two drinking my brandy, but if you are going to be alone together then I must insist you leave the door open.”
“Yes, I am Francesco Repetto.”
Kat Devereaux: Writing Italy’s Wartime Past
Kat Devereaux is a novelist who writes historical fiction set in Italy, with a focus on the Second World War and the resistance movements that operated under German occupation.
Her debut novel, Escape to Tuscany, also uses dual timelines to connect present-day characters with wartime secrets.
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Books Like Daughter of Genoa
- Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism by Alexander Stille: A non-fiction account cited by Devereaux as a source, covering the real exploits of Massimo Teglio and DELASEM in wartime Genoa.
- Escape to Tuscany by Kat Devereaux: The author’s debut, with dual timelines, Italian WWII resistance, and hidden historical secrets.
- The Postcard by Anne Berest: A historical novel about Jewish identity, deportation records, and survival under totalitarian rule.
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: Female resistance workers, forged documents, and escape networks in occupied Europe.
- The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes: Resistance through literature, secret networks, and covert operations against fascist regimes.
You May Also Like:Â Night Road by Kristin Hannah Summary
Quotes from Daughter of Genoa
“It’s extraordinary how the most unpleasant things stay with us the longest.”
“I’m in danger because of who I am. I don’t see how I can make it any worse by what I do. If the Germans find me, they’ll send me away regardless.”
“We all compromise, signora Ricci. We all deal with people we would rather avoid, especially when it means helping ourselves and others.”
“Every person we manage to help is a victory. We cannot change our situation, but we can do our best to improve it. That is within our power, at least.”
“You take the first shift.”
“By the way, I don’t mind you two drinking my brandy, but if you are going to be alone together then I must insist you leave the door open.”
“Yes, I am Francesco Repetto.”
Kat Devereaux: Writing Italy’s Wartime Past
Kat Devereaux is a novelist who writes historical fiction set in Italy, with a focus on the Second World War and the resistance movements that operated under German occupation.
Her debut novel, Escape to Tuscany, also uses dual timelines to connect present-day characters with wartime secrets.
