Eternal

Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

#1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism.

What war destroys, only love can heal.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment. This moving novel will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of readers.
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496 pages

Average rating: 8.12

74 RATINGS

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2 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

JHSiess
Feb 03, 2024
10/10 stars
Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline says that "Eternal is the culmination of a lifetime of my work." It is a story she has wanted to write for some forty years since she was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and one of her professors was none other than acclaimed author Philip Roth. It was during that first semester of study with "Mr. Roth," as he liked to be called, focused on "The Literature of the Holocaust," that Scottoline le...read more
Amanuensis
Jan 30, 2022
3/10 stars
I like history, especially WWII so learning about Italy during WWII Mussolini was a plus since much of this novel has a basis in real events during that time, but the characters and plot felt like a romance novel and felt very formulaic and often farfetched.

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