One morning, early
Two women’s decision to save a child during the Second World War will lead to unforeseen consequences, spanning decades.
1944 Rome. The German occupying forces are rounding up the last remaining Jews from the Italian capital and loading them onto their trucks. Among them is the Levi family. In her panic, the mother almost throws her seven-year-old son Daniele into the arms of a young woman she doesn’t know, who is watching the scene in horror. Chiara Ravello will save the child. She will love him. She will raise him. And she will lose him.
Chiara is one of the story’s two narrators. The second, Maria, will take up the thread thirty years later and unravel it as she travels from Wales to 1970s Rome.
The story of Chiara and Daniele, which unfolds against the backdrop of the war, transcends the violence, terror and pain that marked that period and looks with courage, generosity and honesty at the most personal, the truest and most difficult moments of her main characters.
In One Morning, Early, Bailey achieves something rare: she tells the story simply without, however, sacrificing any of its depth and beauty.
‘Bailey offers a poignant and powerful tale of survival amidst the horrors of war, and celebrates the importance of meaningful bonds in human relationships.’
Kirkus
“A reflective and tender account of lives both shattered and blessed by the vagaries of history... Bailey avoids sentimentality in this sweeping novel that skilfully traces the far-reaching consequences of the actions of Chiara – one of the narrators – across decades.”
Image Magazine, Ireland
- Pages: 448
- ISBN: 978-960-572-101-5
- Publication: 2016
- Dimensions: 13.3 x 20.5
- Categories: Literature, Books, Foreign Literature
"...A beautiful story of orphanhood and love amidst the chaos of the Second World War. A book which, without exaggeration, we would buy for its cover alone..."
– Leonidas Kalousis, Bookpress.gr"...Often, love speaks for itself, and we can say that the book is ultimately overflowing with it, because the victims of war are not only those who left but also those who stayed behind to build a new life..."
– Vasilis Gretistas, Dreamers & Co."...the focus on the setting of the Eternal City will be a source of reading pleasure for some book lovers. The exhaustive descriptions of the small cafés, the streets, the ornate churches with their Renaissance masterpieces, and the bustling daily life of the market are in themselves components of the ‘Roman spring’ that we all once loved..."
– Nikos Davetas, Kathimerini“This book is about a mother’s love. A love without conditions or limits.”
– Panagiotis Hatzigiannakis, Amagi"...Drawing on specific historical events, Virginia Baily, through the unique, intimate story of two people, offers a lesson in self-sacrifice and humanity amidst the horrors of the Second World War, which encompassed violence, terror, pain and humiliation..."
– Eleni Kitsou, Diavasame.gr"...I don’t know if this is considered ‘women’s’ literature, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this vivid story – especially today, in a world where thousands of families are torn apart by war and destruction."
– Christos Grammatidis, elculture.gr"...Virginia Baily’s *One Morning, Early* is a deeply moving book, which brings sweetness to moments that leave one’s mouth dry and bitter. The harshness of wartime is intertwined with the tenderness of people who become kin based solely on the goodness of their souls..."
– Statusupdate.gr[...] we are dealing with a profound and deeply human book, in which the traumas of war remain in the background, whilst personal dramas, closely guarded secrets and desperate acts come to the fore.[...]
– Dionysis Marinos, fractalart.gr"...Virginia Bailey’s *One Morning, Early* is a novel that speaks simply and without affectation about what war can do to people: Of the endless grief of the Holocaust survivors, of the inability of their surroundings to offer them joy and security once more, of the proven fallacy that the end of the war signifies a return to pre-war happiness rather than a complete transformation of everything..."
– Athens 984 FM"...A story of devotion, love, friendship and emotional bonds. A story of the consequences that a split-second decision, an action, a word or a phrase can have. How profoundly they can influence lives and people over time. And here we have many such split-second decisions and actions with dramatic consequences..."
– Maria Diakantoni, Mommy JammiVirginia Baily
Virginia Bailey was born in Yorkshire, England. As well as being an award-winning author, she is the founder and co-editor of the literary journal Riptide, and has previously worked as a language teacher, translator and editor. She tends to write
her stories based on a framework of historical events, whilst she is most concerned with issues of identity, family and difference. Her novel *One Morning, Early* was published in English in 2015 and has already been translated into ten other languages. It was Book of the Month at major bookshops in England, as well as a Sunday Times bestseller. She lives in Exeter, England.
