The Secret Messenger
The highly awaited new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The German Midwife (also published as A Woman of War). #1 GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER. USA TODAY BESTSELLER. KINDLE TOP 10 BESTSELLER. Venice, 1943The world is at war, and Stella Jilani is leading a double life. By day she works in the lion’s den as a typist for the Reich; by night, she risks her life as a messenger for the Italian resistance. Against all odds, Stella must impart Nazi secrets, smuggle essential supplies and produce an underground newspaper on her beloved typewriter. But when German commander General Breugal becomes suspicious, it seems he will stop at nothing to find the mole, and Stella knows her future could be in jeopardy. London, 2017Years later, Luisa Belmont finds a mysterious old typewriter in her attic. Determined to find out who it belonged to, Luisa delves into the past and uncovers a story of fierce love, unimaginable sacrifice and, ultimately, the worst kind of betrayal… Set between German-occupied 1940s Venice and modern-day London, this is a fascinating tale of the bravery of everyday women in the darkest corners of WWII, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.
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THE SECRET MESSENGER
Mandy Robotham
Published by AVON
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Mandy Robotham 2019
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Cover photographs © Mary Evans Picture Library (Piazza San Marco, Venice), Elizabeth Ainsley/Trevillion images (woman), Shutterstock.com (flags, planes, sky)
Mandy Robotham asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008324261
Ebook Edition © December 2019 ISBN: 9780008324254
Version: 2019-11-13
To my mum, Stella – a woman of stamina and enduring style
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Author’s note
Prologue: Clowns
Chapter 1: Grief
Chapter 2: The Lion’s Den
Chapter 3: Bedding In
Chapter 4: Discovery
Chapter 5: A New Task
Chapter 6: Two Sides of the Coin
Chapter 7: New Interest
Chapter 8: Finding and Frustration
Chapter 9: Drinks with the Enemy
Chapter 10: A New Role
Chapter 11: Casting Out
Chapter 12: Opening Up
Chapter 13: Story Time
Chapter 14: A Voice from the Lagoon
Chapter 15: Love and Fury
Chapter 16: A Lull
Chapter 17: On Hold
Chapter 18: Small Talk
Chapter 19: A Detour
Chapter 20: Arrival
Chapter 21: The City Cauldron
Chapter 22: The Seeker
Chapter 23: A Fiery Reaction
Chapter 24: Across the Lagoon
Chapter 25: A New Hope
Chapter 26: Revenge
Chapter 27: The Bloody Summer
Chapter 28: Seeking and Waiting
Chapter 29: Sorrow
Chapter 30: A Low Ebb of the Tide
Chapter 31: Playing Detective
Chapter 32: A Parting
Chapter 33: In Hiding
Chapter 34: The Search for Coffee
Chapter 35: Red-Handed
Chapter 36: Taking Flight
Chapter 37: Age and Enlightenment
Chapter 38: After
Chapter 39: Completion
Chapter 40: The Typewriter
Acknowledgements
Keep Reading …
About the Author
By the Same Author
About the Publisher
War is ugly. Wherever it strikes, it destroys people, families and places, decimates lives and precious objects. Yet being so widespread, conflict also happens in beautiful places, and it was that contrast of light and dark which prompted The Secret Messenger. For me, there is no more stunning or fantastical place on earth than Venice; since my first trip in 1990, I’ve been beguiled on countless visits by the idea of a city effectively floating. I’m still in awe of its very existence and its beauty.
When I began to research how World War Two affected Venice, it became clear that historians were less captivated by its story of Resistance as perhaps in France or the Netherlands; that Venice, by comparison, had experienced a ‘soft’ war. What research I found seemed brief and factual, but those details of Venetian life – of how Venetians existed day by day – were scant. On a research trip (yes, of course, I needed to go back again!) I walked miles through Venetian calles, itching to know which areas of the city played their part in the fight against the Nazis and fascists combined.
It wasn’t until my return home that I struck gold; a chance email launched into cyberspace sparked a reply from the wonderfully named Signor Giulio Bobbo, a historian at IVESER, the Venetian Institute for the History of Resistance and Contemporary Society. His own area of expertise? The Resistance in wartime Venice. It was like manna from heaven.
Thanks to Giulio, his grounding in factual research and the nuggets of priceless detail about real life in wartime Venice, the book began to take shape. At last, I could see a Venice under the cloak of war. The more Giulio and I traded emails, the more my search seemed to run parallel to the quest within the story – it seemed only fitting Giulio’s character should make an appearance, along with Melodie the cat who, by the way, is very real and does indeed love a warm photocopier!
