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Based on the historical incident of an unspeakable massacre at the site of Sant’Anna Di Stazzema, a small village in Tuscany, and on the experiences of the famed Buffalo soldiers from the 92nd Division in Italy during World War II, MIRACLE AT SAINT. ANNA is a singular evocation of war, cruelty, passion, and heroism. It is the story of four American Negro soldiers, a band of partisans, and an Italian boy who encounter a miracle – though perhaps the true miracle lies in themselves.Traversing class, race, and geography, MIRACLE AT SAINT. ANNA is above all a hymn to the brotherhood of man and the power to do good that lives in each of us.
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Reviews
A searingly, soaringly beautiful book
James McBride's first book, The Color of Water, a memoir published in 1996, sold more than 1.3 million copies and was a bestseller for two years. Now he has produced a novel, Miracle at Sant'Anna. It evokes such power and beauty, pathos and love, that it may very well outstrip its precursor...A searingly, soaringly beautiful novel. Some may argue that the epilogue, which brings the story sharply back to the present, does so perhaps a trifle too cleverly. That was not the case for me. I found it crisp and free of sentimentality.
The book's central theme, its essence, is a celebration of the human capacity for love. Even in the course of virtually unbearable warfare and deprivation - with carnage and devastation, hunger and hopelessness blotting out all other realities - people are able to touch each other, to care. That, McBride insists, is the enduring, immortal miracle of the human race, for all its imperfections.
A powerful and emotional novel of black American soldiers fighting the German army in the mountains of Italy around the village of St. Anna of Stazzema in December 1944. This is a refreshingly ambitious story of men facing the enemy in front and racial prejudice behind; it is also a carefully crafted tale of a mute Italian orphan boy who teaches the American soldiers, Italian villagers and partisans that miracles are the result of faith and trust....Through his sharply drawn characters, McBride exposes racism, guilt, courage, revenge and forgiveness, with the soldiers confronting their own fear and rage in surprisingly personal ways at the decisive moment in their lives
A brutal and moving first novel...McBride's heart is on its sleeve, but these days it looks just right
McBride displays an ear for storytelling and language, but here he also proves he can devise a plot that gathers intensity as it accelerates
A mesmerising read that counterpoints the horror of war with man's capacity for love
Excellent first novel
A haunting meditation on faith that's also a cracking military thriller . . . MIRACLE flows along with cool, clean prose . . . Profoundly spiritual but rarely preachy, MIRACLE turns out to be less a Good Book than a good book - a miracle in itself
McBride is realistic about racial prejudice and explicit about the dreadfulness of all fighting, but still hints at the possiblity of justice. He offers hope. This war story, full of action, suffering, disgust and melodrama is also a sermon, preaching that the human spirit can defeat adversity and that love transcends evil
'A remarkable read that compares the horror of war with a man's capacity for love. A refreshingly ambitious story.' BRIDLINGTON GAZETTE AND HERALD
War, cruelty, passion, heroism and race crammed into one lyrical tale
'lyrical tale . . . an unutterably moving intensity which peaks in the final beautifully crafted scenes. The inner life of the boy is rendered with amazing insight.' TABLET
A powerful and emotional novel