Miracle at St. Anna

Miracle at St. Anna (2001) is American author James McBride’s debut novel, following the publication of his 1995 memoir. St. Anna is a novel of the magical realism genre that tells the story of four soldiers in the all-Black 92nd Buffalo Division rescuing an Italian child during World War II. St. Anna was turned into a film, the script of which McBride wrote, in 2008, directed by Spike Lee. Despite the novel’s positive critical reception, the film received predominantly negative reviews and was criticized heavily by Italian organizations who objected to the portrayal of a partisan collaborating with the Nazis.

This guide refers to the 2002 Riverhead Books electronic edition. Please note that some variance in pagination may occur.

Content Warning: This guide refers to suicide, racism, slurs (including the n-word, which is not replicated in this guide), and graphic descriptions of violence and trauma in war (including violence against children and civilians).

Plot Summary

Miracle at St. Anna opens in 1983 when postal worker Hector Negron suddenly shoots a customer in the face (this customer is revealed in the Epilogue to be Italian partisan traitor Rodolfo Borelli). When the head of a missing Florentine statue is found in Hector’s apartment, it is publicized worldwide; an unnamed Italian man sees the report in the newspaper (the Epilogue reveals this man to be Angelo Tornacelli, known through most of the book as “the boy,” who knows Hector and Rodolfo from the events that comprise the main action of the text).

The main action of the novel takes place in Italy in 1944. Sam Train, a member of G Company of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division of the US Army, is fighting German troops in Italy when he experiences the sensation of becoming suddenly invisible. This feeling of invisibility overtakes him and subsequently waxes and wanes throughout the novel. Sam, characterized as kind but unintelligent, is directed by fellow soldier Bishop Cummings to aid an Italian child hiding behind a haystack. The boy (whose name is later revealed to be Angelo) is injured by nearby artillery fire before being rescued by Train. The battle continues, and Train and the boy become cut off from their American allies.

From the far side of a canal, Second Lieutenant Aubrey Stamps and Bishop watch Train reenter German fire, first for the head of a Florentine statue, Primavera (which he has carried with him for months and believes offers him luck), and then again for the boy. Bishop, Stamps, and Hector decide to follow Train and the boy as Train climbs into the Italian mountains.

A historical interlude describes the legend of “The Mountain of the Sleeping Man” (45), the mountain Train and the boy climb with Bishop, Stamps, and Hector in pursuit. At the main American camp, Colonel Jack Driscoll, a white intelligence officer, is summoned to hear what an Italian priest (later revealed as Rodolfo in disguise) reports about the advancing German army: Thousands of German soldiers will arrive imminently. Driscoll orders Nokes (an inept white captain who failed to send reinforcements at Stamps’s request because he believed Black soldiers incapable of great military achievement) to confirm the fake priest’s story. Driscoll knows of Nokes’s failure but protects him, fearing that a different white captain might be worse.

A further historical interlude tracks the Primavera statue’s four centuries of history before it fell into Train’s possession. Stamps, Bishop, and Hector catch up with Train, urging him to take the boy to a hospital. Train alternately denies wanting the boy, denies he exists, and refuses to leave him, frustrating the other soldiers. When the boy touches Train’s face and Train feels affection and connection, he decides the boy is an angel. The soldiers, Train carrying the boy, attempt to return to their camp only to find their way blocked by German troops.

They march in the rain until they reach the church of St. Anna. Train, struck by the beauty of a bust of the eponymous saint, approaches it incautiously. The others shout for Train to return, fearing German soldiers may be inside, but they only encounter a man mumbling nonsense in Italian (they later learn this man’s family was killed in a massacre at the church). The bell of the church rings out suddenly, and the soldiers flee.

In the nearby village of Bornacchi, elderly Ludovico Salducchi believes himself cursed by the “village witch” Ettora, whom he spurned as a young man. Each day, Ludovico finds more and more rabbits in his house, which he fears will draw the attention and ire of starving German soldiers. The four soldiers arrive at Ludovico’s house, and Stamps immediately develops an attraction to Ludovico’s daughter, Renata. The Italians insist on caring for the boy while the soldiers stay elsewhere. Train reluctantly leaves the boy.

A historical interlude examines Italian attitudes toward World War II in the decades following the war, explaining the legend of the “Black Butterfly,” who became a famed partisan after he exacted revenge on an SS soldier who tortured and killed a young partisan woman. The Black Butterfly, real name Peppi Grotto, displayed the mutilated corpse of the SS solider in the same place where the partisan woman was killed; when he escaped without detection, the Germans placed an ever-increasing price on his head.

Peppi, as a result, only travels with a small group of trusted friends, including Rodolfo. This group arrives outside Bornacchi, seeking to question Ludovico, whom they suspect of posting a sign urging rebellion against the Germans and promising partisan protection for those who rebelled. This sign led the Germans to massacre 560 Italian civilians at St. Anna’s church. (It is later revealed that it was in fact Rodolfo who posted this sign to lure out Peppi, whom he betrayed as revenge for Peppi killing Rodolfo’s Fascist brother, Marco.) Ludovico’s bounty (which includes access to electricity as well as his rabbits) lead them to suspect the old man.

The boy wakes in Ludovico’s house and discovers the rabbits, which Ludovico still endeavors to hide, until Renata tells him that everyone knows about the animals. Renata and Ettora endeavor to give the boy food and medicine, but he will only take these from Train. While the other three soldiers return to the other house to attempt to contact base on the radio, Train stays with the boy. He falls through the floor, discovering Ludovico’s rabbits.

Early the next day, Stamps, Bishop, and Hector make contact with Nokes via radio; Nokes asks them to capture a German prisoner and wait for rescue. They decide to wait but not risk themselves by searching for a prisoner. A historical interlude tracks the history of Bornacchi, where the four soldiers and the boy are stranded for over a week. The soldiers barter with the villagers, who do not display the same racist attitudes as do white Americans. The groups pool their resources and have a festive afternoon.

The following day, four partisans lead a German prisoner into town at gunpoint. The Americans and partisans argue over who will get custody of the prisoner. The boy recognizes the German and Rodolfo from St. Anna, though he cannot yet speak to fully explain their role in the massacre. The German denies being part of the massacre, and Peppi becomes suspicious of Rodolfo. Via radio, the soldiers confirm Nokes’s arrival the following day and are ordered to evacuate, as thousands of German soldiers will soon arrive. Peppi returns to the mountains, leaving Hector and Rodolfo to watch over the prisoner. The boy begins to speak, identifying himself as Angelo and saying that the German soldier was at St. Anna, where he told Angelo to run, a message he now repeats.

Back at camp, Driscoll sends Nokes, a Black lieutenant named Birdsong, and four other Black soldiers to fetch the four soldiers in Bornacchi, along with the German prisoner. In Bornacchi, Stamps, also suspicious of Rodolfo, sends the partisan to scout for approaching Germans; his suspicion increases when Rodolfo reports no Germans in the area, despite the audible artillery fire that grows ever closer. Rodolfo and Hector guard the German prisoner, and Rodolfo stabs Hector, injuring him, and then kills the German.

Peppi, on the ridge above Bornacchi, puzzles through Rodolfo’s betrayal. When Rodolfo arrives, Peppi confronts him, accusing him of turning him in for the price on his head (bags of salt, priceless in Italian wartime). Rodolfo admits to wanting Peppi dead in revenge for Marco but claims he did not intend for the massacre victims at St. Anna to die. Rodolfo flees, weeping. Peppi lets him escape, considering that living with the guilt of so much death is worse than death itself. In Bornacchi, Angelo recounts the horrors he saw at St. Anna, where Rodolfo lured the Italians to their deaths and the now-dead German prisoner helped him escape.

Nokes arrives and orders the four soldiers to leave with him and leave Angelo behind. Train refuses, leading to a confrontation in which Nokes, Birdsong, and four soldiers leave Train, Bishop, Stamps, and Hector behind. Nokes’s jeep is almost immediately hit by German artillery, killing him and the others. Train, Bishop, Hector, Stamps, and Angelo lead the villagers away as German fire rains down around them, save Ettora, who dies from shrapnel while still in the village. The group climbs the ridge to St. Anna.

Angelo is hit by bullets and dies; Train is shot trying to protect him. Stamps is killed attempting to throw a grenade at German machine guns, and Bishop is killed while trying to save Train. Angelo miraculously awakens, feeling he now possesses Train’s invisibility, and flees with his imaginary friend, Arturo. Besides Angelo, only Hector survives.

The novel’s Epilogue reveals that the victim in the post office shooting was Rodolfo, who recognized Hector in the moments before his death. Hector refuses to speak to any authorities about the killing and is briefly institutionalized. A rich Italian patron (Angelo, now an adult) arranges for him to post bail and helps him flee to the Seychelles. There, Hector recounts the story of St. Anna, calling himself the only survivor. Angelo identifies himself and produces the Primavera head, and the two embrace.