A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria RussellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace." -- a Hebrew saying
During World War II, when most of the world rejected and murdered Jews, fifty thousand of them survived because they were taken in, hidden and protected by Italians from all walks of life, at great personal risk... and in defiance of the Vatican's and Pope Pius XII's shameful neutrality agreement.
This is the thread of grace in that dark period of history, the subject matter of this wonderful novel that took the author seven years to research and write.
Mary Doria Russell is one of my favorite authors for good reason: she writes about things that MATTER. She puts her anthropological background to good use by writing so skilfully about character's motivations and desires in a few paragraphs, then weaves together redemption and History like magic in an epic tale. The scale of her canvas is huge, but the reader is never lost, as we read of sacrifice and sin, hatred and heroism.
This being my 4th novel by her, I've learned to appreciate her particular blend of theology and righteousness, a world view that acknowledges the depths of man's fall from grace, but also the heights of our potential for good.
"When the preponderance of human beings choose to act with justice and generosity and kindness, then learning and love and decency prevail... Each of us chooses, one by one, and God's eye does not turn from those who suffer or from those who inflict suffering. Our choices are weighed. And thus, the nations are judged."
It is a story of how ordinary people chose to help because they could, defying what their pope and the law said, putting morality above theology. And it challenges its readers: could we have done the same?
Best read with hanky at the ready! She always makes me sob, huhuhu.
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