Beneath a Scarlet Sky

Beneath a Scarlet Sky (2017) is a coming-of-age historical fiction novel by Mark Sullivan. It follows Pino Lella, a 17-year-old Milanese boy, as he navigates the dangers of Nazi-occupied Italy during World War II. The novel is largely based on the real-life account of Pino Lella, who was an old man by the time he decided to share his story. While writing, Sullivan drew upon Pino’s memories, research from war archives, and interviews with Holocaust historians, Italian Catholic priests, and members of the partisan resistance. His other works include The Last Green Valley (2021).

Plot Summary

The novel begins on the first night of the Allied bombing of Milan, Italy: June 9, 1943. Pino Lella and his family leave the city at night and return in the morning to increased destruction as Milan is bombed. Pino’s mother, Porzia, and sister, Cicci, have evacuated to another city. Pino’s father, Michele, has sent Pino’s brother, Mimo, to Casa Alpina, a boarding school north of Milan near the Alps. When Pino and his father return to Milan one morning after a night of bombing, their apartment is reduced to rubble. Michele sends Pino to Casa Alpina to wait out the war.

Pino is reluctant to go to Casa Alpina but quickly befriends Alberto Ascari, a boy who lives nearby. Ascari teaches Pino how to drive, and in exchange, Pino teaches Ascari how to ski. While at Casa Alpina, Father Re, the priest who looks after the school, enlists Pino to help Italian refugees escape the Nazis to Switzerland. Pino finds a sense of purpose in helping the refugees escape the Nazis and resolves to do whatever he can to fight the Nazis in the war.

Before long, Michele calls Pino back to Milan. He is nearing his 18th birthday, and Michele and Uncle Albert fear he will be drafted and sent to die on the Russian front. They insist that Pino enlist with the Germans to ensure he is placed with a unit that won’t see any fighting. Pino is angry about this decision because he’s vowed to fight the Nazis.

While working for the German army, Pino is injured during a train station bombing. While recovering, a fortuitous encounter with a German general places Pino in a position to spy for the Allies. General Hans Leyers, one of the most powerful Germans in Italy, asks Pino to be his personal driver when he sees that Pino knows his way around the engine of a car.

When Pino picks up Leyers on the first morning of his new job, he discovers that Anna, a woman Pino fell in love with on the first day of the bombing, works as a maid for the general’s mistress. His role as driver and spy affords him not only a way to secretly fight the Nazis but also a way to be close to Anna.

Throughout his tenure as Leyers’s driver, Pino witnesses how the Nazis work their prisoners to death. He comes to view Leyers as a slave master and despises him for it. Pino also struggles when his friends and countrymen think he is a traitor for wearing the Nazi uniform. However, unbeknownst to them, Pino secretly reports information about Leyers to Uncle Albert, who then relays the information to London through shortwave radio.

As the war draws to a close, the partisan fighters in Italy charge Pino with arresting Leyers and turning him over. After he does so, Pino believes it’s the last time he will ever see Leyers and regrets not revealing that he was a spy for the Allies

Milan goes through several days of insurrection as the Nazis are driven out. Bodies of Fascists litter the streets from revenge killings. After celebrating the war’s end at a party with American GIs, Pino is horrified to learn that Anna never made it out of Milan; partisan soldiers abducted her. Later, he watches as she is executed on charges of being a Nazi collaborator.

Hollowed out, Pino agrees to one last mission for the Americans: Pino must drive Leyers across the border into Austria. Pino is shocked and confused to hear Leyers called a hero and decides to deliver justice to the general. Pino agrees to drive Leyers with the intention of killing him before crossing the Austrian border.

When Pino is presented with his chance, however, he loses his nerve. He delivers the general across the border to the waiting Americans. Before he leaves, Leyers reveals that Anna’s death was his own doing, insinuating he knew about Pino’s activity all along. This fills Pino with questions and doubt for years to come.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky’s multidimensional characterizations of the agents and spies of the Allied and Axis powers frame World War II as both an emotional and physical battle, suggesting that no historically fraught period can be transmitted in simple terms—but it might be made intelligible through the power of narrative.