The Light in the Ruins

Fire. Readers who enjoy the variety of a smorgasbord are those most likely to enjoy reading The Light in the Ruins, a historical novel by Chris Bohjalian. I found that the novel contained a morsel of this, that, and the other, which never unified enough to satisfy me. The setting is Tuscany from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. There’s a story of the Nazi occupation of a villa with an Etruscan tomb on the property where partisans have hidden. Two female protagonists are scarred by war: one by the fire that burned her; another by her love for a Nazi occupier. At the end of the time frame there is a serial killing spree that Bohjalian lays out in pieces using changes in time sequence to explain the backstory. As expected, everything makes sense by the end. Rating: Three-star (It’ok) Click here to purchase The Light in the Ruins from amazon.com.