The Garden of Angels

by David Hewson

Overview

At his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943.

A Times Best Thriller Book of 2022

The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. Awkward fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he’s waited his whole life to share.

When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches – earning him a week’s suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness . . .

Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather’s life: when Paolo’s support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city’s underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can’t stop reading – but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838857707
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, The Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than twenty-five novels, including his Rome-based Nic Costa series which has been published in fifteen languages, and his Amsterdam-based series featuring detective Pieter Vos. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series, The Killing. He lives near Canterbury in Kent.

Editorial Reviews

If you only read one book this year, read this one. Its essential truth about what happened in WWII and about what is happening now will both chill and inspire you. It's also a damn good story featuring fantastic characters - one of which is Venice herself

BARBARA NADEL

Gripping and powerful, The Garden of Angels richly evokes the tension and threat of Nazi-occupied Venice. A moving and important novel

Tess Gerritsen

With a gallery of wonderful characters on both sides of the fence and never flinching from the atrocities committed by all parties, this is a gripping tale of pathos and heroism with a wonderful final twist that raises the book to a whole other level

Crimetime - MAXIM JAKUBOWSKI

Sensitively written, with a tremendous late twist, The Garden of Angels is above all a superlative re-creation of time and aqueous place

The Times

The plot is strong, tense and intricate with an unexpected twist in the tail, and the sense of place is haunting and powerful, but the abiding strength is in the characterisation . . . You may feel that we are sated with novels about occupied Europe in WW2, but don’t miss this one

Historical Novel Society

I can thoroughly recommend this book . . . it has a strong message about fascism and about what happens to a country when people not only support and encourage it but also stand by and do nothing; are complicit in their silence. Masterful impassioned writing

RICHARD ARMITAGE

Vivid and compelling, The Garden of Angels is at once a richly wrought thriller set in WWII Venice and a powerful exploration of the grey areas in which we live in times of fear and oppression

SARAH PINBOROUGH

The plot is strong, tense and intricate with an unexpected twist in the tail, and the sense of place is haunting and powerful, but the abiding strength is in the characterisation

The Historical Novel Society

"Vivid and compelling. A richly wrought thriller, a love story and a warning that spans decades. I was thinking about this book for days after I'd closed it"

NYT and Sunday Times bestselling author SARAH PINBOROUGH

Hewson expertly balances tense action and thoughtful emotion. Fans of character driven WWII thrillers will want to check this out - Publishers Weekly

'Full of layers, like a Russian nesting doll … A good read for those who love their World War II thrillers with a bit of history included. Followers of Donna Leon’s “Commissario Brunetti” mysteries may appreciate the atmosphere and the intrigue' - Library Journal

Hewson displays the gifts that distinguish the Costa series: the ability to bring texture and humanity to multiple characters and to explore significant moments in history through the microcosm of those characters' lives - Booklist

From the Publisher

"Gripping and powerful, THE GARDEN OF ANGELS richly evokes the tension and threat of Nazi-occupied Venice. A moving and important novel"

NYT bestselling author TESS GERRITSEN