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    The Girl From Venice
    The Girl From Venice
    The Girl From Venice
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Girl From Venice

    Written by Martin Cruz Smith

    Narrated by Zach Appelman

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From Martin Cruz Smith, “a master of the international thriller” (The New York Times), a suspenseful World War II love story set against the beauty, mystery, and danger of occupied Venice.

    Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman’s body floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble.

    Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the Wehrmacht. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini’s broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon.

    With Martin Cruz Smith’s trademark suspense, action, and breathtaking romance during World War II Italy, The Girl from Venice is “a gripping evocation of a beautiful nation and of two people, trapped in the lunacy of war and the bravery it can inspire” (The Seattle Times).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 18, 2016
    ISBN9781508221876
    Author

    Martin Cruz Smith

    Martin Cruz Smith’s novels include Gorky Park, Stallion Gate, Nightwing, Polar Star, Stalin’s Ghost, Rose, December 6, Tatiana, The Girl from Venice, and The Siberian Dilemma. He is a two-time winner of the Hammett Prize, a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and Britain’s Golden Dagger Award, and a winner of the Premio Piemonte Giallo Internazionale. He lives in California.

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    Reviews for The Girl From Venice

    3.5/5

    159 ratings27 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In the waning days of WWII in Italy, a fisherman retrieves a girl from a lagoon and finds out she is an escapee from a converted asylum holding Jewish prisoners. He teaches her about fishing and decides to help her find sanctuary. When she disappears, he searches for her, and his journey takes him to Salo, Italy, where he encounters administrators, police, Nazi collaborators, resistance fighters, diplomats, and a friend of Mussolini’s mistress. The fisherman’s brother is a well-loved actor; however, there is no love lost between the brothers, and their backstory is a significant subplot.

      I very much enjoyed the first half of this book. However, in the second half, after the girl has disappeared, it loses momentum and is set adrift in a sea of too many side stories. I usually do not care for mature men romancing teenage girls, and in this case, the girl is eighteen, so it appears less love story and more hero worship of someone who rescued her. Speaking of heroes, the protagonist is a bit of a MacGyver – he can do “everything” and will do it all by the time this is over.

      So, this book has a promising premise, an interesting setup, and a compelling first half, but it falls on the weight of too many side plots and implausibility. The ending is a letdown. Three stars.
    • 3/5
      Venice is occupied nearing the end of WWII. A fisherman named Cenzo finds a girl in the water when he is fishing. She is jewish and escaping the Germans. Cenzo is a common fisherman who has a famous brother. who we can never quite figure out if he is one of the good guys or not. Most of the novel continues on this vain as we meet collaborators, partisans etc. the characters are intriguing and the dialogue very smart but this novel was only okay to me. The depth of plot just wasn't there.
    • 5/5
      By a coincidence I had just finished a Donna Leone book that also dealt with the island of Pelistrina. The era is completely different and the image presented of the fishermen much different but it does expand my grasp of Venice's geography. This is both a lover story and a story of intrigue at the end of World war two in Italy. I found it a clever story.
    • 4/5
      Smith writes with his usual skill, and his characters are as witty, world-weary, and romantic as ever.

      Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Goodreads for the free copy.
    • 2/5
      Writing not so great. WWII. Italy. What’s the point here? Why’d I bother to finish this?
    • 4/5
      When a fisherman from a small town outside Venice finds what he believes to be a dead girl in the water, he discovers himself in the middle of a plot to end World War II, a search for an escaped Jew, and more counterplots than expected. It is the end of the war in Italy, and all sides are searching for a survival strategy. Why is one girl so central?
    • 4/5
      A Venetian fisherman becomes involved with last minute peace negotiations, partisan activity and German intransigence when he picks up a Jewish girl in the lagoon. HIs glamorous older brother is a film star and radio broadcaster for the Fascist regime and his mother is set on him marrying his younger brother's widow but he finds himself sucked into the lives of the rich and famous waiting to see how the war will end.
    • 3/5
      I asked for this book at Christmas because I read a review that described as a little like Casablanca. I took this to mean second world war setting, epic romance, and a sweeping broad plot. Regretfully it contained only one of those three things and my enjoyment suffered because of that unfulfilled expectation. What I did like was the setting and the actual premise of the novel. Despite the title the majority of the story is set throughout the Venice Lagoon and in Pellestrina specifically or Salo, near Lake Garda and both locations are used to great effect. The former provides a small enough community for Smith to highlight the challenges and waiting game that faced ordinary Italians during the dying days, not only of the second world war, but also the Italian Socialist Republic - a topic I found fascinating and would like to read further on. In Salo we are taken to the heart of that Republic and I felt the town was used well as a backdrop of the political machinations as the regime came to an end. The initial premise of the book is I think a strong one but becomes quickly distilled by the introduction of a large array of supplementary characters and plotlines without ever really fleshing out the two main protagonists. If this had been a deeper character driven novel focusing on Guilia and Cenzo and how they stay safe in a dangerous and rapidly changing world I think I could have enjoyed it. If it has been a mystery / thriller with a clear focus on finding out who had betrayed Guilia’s family I think I would have read happily. I could have even have got on board with a family epic looking at Cenzo’s complex family history but what we end up with is something of a confused mish mash of all elements that left me unsatisfied. A final word – Guilia is introduced as a naïve, necessarily sheltered girl of 18. I found the romantic element of the story with a much older character who knew about her past somewhat distasteful.
    • 3/5
      An overabundance of WWII stories covers the shelves, still many novels pass muster and entertain the reader. The Girl from Venice twists the story of a Jewish girl adrift in Italy during the last days of WWII. While fishing, Cenzo discovers Giulia. Cenzo must now hide Giulia and find someone to take her to safety as the Germans are herding Jews and killing them. Martin Cruz Smith captures the beauty of the sea, the fish, and the art of fishing in this story of love. Many authors concentrate on the hardships of the war and the terrible events that happen, but Smith glides over all the tragedies. Of course, the jealousy among brothers permeates the story, but in the end, Cenzo follows his heart and conscience.
    • 3/5
      Would have to agree with the assessment that this was a disappointment. Seems to miss the grit and punch of the Arkady Renko series. There is a good basis here, but really needed more plot development.
    • 4/5
      A good Cruz Smith. Interesting and well developed characters, unusual premise and page-turning prose. A strong return to form after the last two Renkos. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
    • 2/5
      I was very disappointed in this, in my view Smith's weakest book ever. Started out well and then meandered to a conclusion. Repetitive, episodic and unconvincing.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. The characters and plot are well developed, and the scenes the language allowed me to create in my mind were great. It started out a little slow, but definitely picked up, and I couldn't put it down. A great, and unique perspective on WWII. Highly recommend it!
    • 2/5
      I was definitely disappointed with this book - I had expected much better than this from Martin Cruz Smith. It was an odd tale, told in a somewhat casual fashion. I wouldn't recommend it.
    • 3/5
      I read this book because I was intrigued by the cover, but was less than enthralled by the story. I’ve not read any other books by Martin Cruz Smith so I have nothing else to which to compare it. I need more depth to a story.
    • 3/5
      Martin Cruz Smith has the reputation for being a master story teller when it comes to espionage stories. Throw in the fact that this book also falls into the category of historic fiction and I was all in. Unfortunately, this book tries too hard to be a spy thriller, and a historic fiction novel, and a war romance, and it doesn't do any of them well and the final result is a lack of cohesion in the story. Elements of good writing, but I found my mind wandering during this one.
    • 3/5
      Opening with a fisherman finding a nearly dead girl in the waters near Venice, this book quickly pulls one into Italy during World War II. As the characters finding themselves playing cat and mouse with the SS, the Allied invasion is also advances and Mussolini is also on the run, trying to save himself from the violence fracturing the country. This is a good read for fans of WWII historical fiction, with plenty of like-able character and fun history to follow.
    • 3/5
      Something shallow about this book. I here been on a WWII reading binge for several years and this fiction regarding the Italian resistance and nazi occupation near the end of the war was one of the least engaging. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a solid 3.
    • 1/5
      Nothing here to hold my interest - managed to read a quarter of it before giving up and moving on.
    • 4/5
      I thought the book was interesting and a quick read. The work takes place in the area near Venice at he end of he Second World War as the war is winding down in Italy. The story involves a fisherman and a young Jewish girl whose suddenly he finds swimming near his boat whose parents have been killed by an individual who is a German collaborator. I always enjoy historical fiction and this book has in the background the eventual demise of " El Duce", Benito Mussolini and his girlfriend Claretta who are eventually hung upside down in Milan by partisans.
    • 3/5
      3.5 starsThe Girl from Venice takes place in Italy towards the end of World War II. Martin Cruz Smith starts the book as the war is almost at a close and chose occupied Venice as the setting. As I was starting this book, I realized that I have read a ton of World War II fiction, but not a single book that took place in Italy during the war. Occupied Venice is a fascinating place with a number of warring factions, which at times I found a little hard to keep straight. While the Italians are waiting on the Americans to arrive and liberate them, the Nazis are attempting to wipe out every Jew that they can and punish those Italians who were not loyal supporters of the Nazis.As the story opens, Cenzo, a local fisherman is out fishing at night on the Venice lagoon when he pulls a young girl from the water. He soon discovers that the Nazis are searching for her because she is Jewish and is the lone survivor of a coordinated attack on a group that had been in hiding for several years. Cenzo chooses to protect her, and this choice draws him into the world of the SS, spies, the Partisans, and numerous other individuals. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the historical aspects of Venice and neighboring Salo at the end of the war though I found it to be fairly confusing at times trying to distinguish who was who exactly. I did think there was way too much time spent on the fishing aspects early on and skimmed some of those sections.The Girl from Venice was an interesting read, and I felt I learned a lot. Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      I am a big fan of Martin Cruz Smith. I have read all eight books of the Arkady Renko series, and I have also read his excellent stand-alone "December 6". Yet it was the plot description of "The Girl From Venice" (GV) that attracted me most to the book - Venice, WWll, a mysterious girl floating in the lagoons. It was a very enjoyable read with a good balance of romance, drama, humor, and history. The war is quickly coming to an end, perhaps the most perilous time of all. Early one pre-dawn morning, protagonist Cenzo, a 28 year old not-so-simple fisherman and widower, catches his biggest fish of all time. Her name is Giulia, and it's not clear how old she is, perhaps 15, maybe 18 as she claims. Apparently she is the sole survivor of several Jews slaughtered in a raid at the hospital in which they were hiding.Cenzo, the self-described supporter of his family including his mother and widowed sister-in-law is anxious to release his catch before she is caught with him by one of the many hostiles that are pursuing her, from local officials to multiple partisan gangs, to the German Army. And then there's Giorgio, the older brother, famous movie actor, a cad who seduced Gina, Cenzo's late wife.....and Hugo's wife too. Hugo's the other brother; he's dead too. Mom Sofia isn't too crazy about Giulia - after all she's Jewish, and the town custom is that Cenzo is supposed to marry his dead brother's widow! Before long, it becomes a case of "where's Guilia?" "where's the gold?" so much more complicated than Cenzo's usual worry, "where're the fish?".There are many other interesting characters and there's a fair amount of running around, but this never becomes slapstick. Rather, there are many somber notes too, just to remind us this isn't a Frank Capra romance. When Giulia chops most of her hair off to disguise herself as an apprentice fisherman, Cenzo is reminded of the punishment meted out to the townswomen who had become too friendly with occupying troops. Even so, there are occasional one-liners from Cenzo and friends very reminiscent of the wit, wisdom and wry humor of Renko. Two examples, "How's the smuggling going, Nido?" Giorgio asked. "Without fuel for my motorboat, I've become a very honest man." There is lot of bombing toward the end, and the US is not universally viewed as a savior. Giorgio is quizzed by a supposed German film director: "You just came in from.....?" asked Otto Klein. "Venice," Giorgio said. "And....." Otto hesitated. "It's still there."A good story, interesting, well written. Moves along nicely. No bad words, sex is implied and then the scene fades to black. Recommended. If you've never read MCS before, be sure to read "Gorky Park".
    • 4/5
      3.5 Three brothers, Hugo whose death provides fodder later on, Giorgio who becomes an actor, the lion of Italy and later Mussolini's propaganda chief and Cenzio, who wants only to be a fisherman on his island Pellistrina , plying his trade on the Ventian canals. On one such trip he discovers a young girl floating in the canal, a Jewish girl who has escaped the death of her father and others. Cenzio's life as a peaceful fisherman will come to an abrupt end.I found this an engaging read, much of it takes place in Sala at the end of the war, occupied by German soldiers, partisans, diplomats, a fading Mussolini, who is basically a well kept prisoner of the Germans and an invading American force. So this covers many different types of genres, historical, adventure and a love story. I loved the lighter tone, enjoyed Canzo and some of my favorite parts were learning about fishing the canals and how to catch the different fish. Also takes place in an area I have read little of and a time in history of which I knew nothing. Seems I have read little of Italy's history during WWII. Engaging story, family quarrels and Cenzio trying to save Giuila while surviving the many different forces in play. A lighter historical but a good one. ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      The Girl from Venice is set in the waning days of WWII. The populace of Italy has come to realize that Germany is losing the war no matter what the propaganda says. The lines of loyalty are being drawn causing towns and families to be divided. Cenzo is a fisherman of the lagoons in Venice. One night he happens upon what he thinks is a dead body. It turns out the body is very much alive and is in fact a very young Jewish woman, Guilia, who is fleeing from the last attempts of the Nazis to round up all remaining Jews in Italy. Cenzo starts aiding Guilia in her escape and in the process kills an SS officer. To keep her safe Cenzo arranges for a smuggler he knows to sneak her out of Venice. Things do not go as planned and Guilia is missing. Cenzo goes to Salo to try to find her and becomes ensnared with the political upheaval occurring in Italy. This is a historical thriller and a very touching love story and demonstrates the length people will go to for those they love. I struggled a little getting through the beginning because the pace of the story was rather slow at first. Once you get beyond the first 30 pages or so the pace really picks up. I particularly loved the depth of characters and the vivid descriptions in the book. The story was so well blended with the history of that time in Italy. All this made for a wonderful read and I thoroughly enjoyed. Any fan of either romance or historical novels will surely enjoy this.I received an ARC from Simon and Schuster in return for my honest review.
    • 4/5
      Near the end of World War II, an Italian fisherman finds a girl's body floating in the waters near Venice. Thus begins an engrossing story that carries us from Venice to Salo, the capital of the Italian Fascist Republic, where Mussolini is hiding out with, among others, the fisherman's actor brother. I really don't want to talk much about the plot, because, like many of Smith's books, it is a little over-complicated and unbelievable. One reads Smith (or at least I do) for his marvelous characterization, memorable scenes, and incredible locations, backed by some good research. The relationship between the fisherman and the girl, an 18 year old Jew running from the Nazis (yes--the body turns out to be alive)--is well done, although the girl remains a cypher throughout, not saying a whole lot. One could put it down to the trauma of losing her parents and being pursued by Nazis, but it doesn't quite come across that way. She is a stoic survivor type, capable of great courage, and you will come to love her despite not being able to get inside her head. The fisherman also grows in our estimation, as does the barkeeper who helps him out, and even his brother, the actor, who has a whole lot of wrongdoing to answer for. The relationship between the two brothers is probably the most interesting part of the book, but there are other great characters as well, such as the wife of the invalid Argentinian consul, who holds parties in her great, empty mansion, or the German officers, knowing that the war is ending badly, but trying to emerge with at least some honor intact. Or the mysterious film director who is connected to the plot in so many ways. This is where things begin to break down just a little. As fascinating as these characters are, and despite the interesting situations Smith involves them in (this is a page turner), it doesn't quite all hold together plot-wise. In the end, it doesn't matter that much. Despite some loose ends (life has those), the ending is very satisfactory and the characters and settings stay in our heads. The Nazis aren't as evil as they probably should be, but Smith does succeed in showing the chaos at the end of the war as the Nazis leave (or try to leave) while the Italian Communists and Partisans prepare to fight it out for post-war control. Meanwhile the long-expected American troops continue to fail to arrive. So, bottom line, five stars for entertainment value. Three stars for believability. I recommend it. Interestingly, I believe this is the first of Smith's non-Arkady Renko books I have actually managed to finish, so that is a pretty high recommendation. I'll have to go back and give the others another try.
    • 4/5
      From it’s evocative cover to its low key, upbeat ending, The Girl From Venice is an enjoyable, surprisingly romantic outing from Martin Cruz Smith.Martin Cruz Smith has a history of writing highly intelligent characters into interesting, atmospheric locations that reek of history. Most famously, Arkady Renko is the brilliant, morose Russian detective, whose travails chronicle the last 40 years in Russia. Cruz Smith has a talent for rendering characters who are smarter than we are, and making us believe it.In The Girl from Venice, he steps outside the world of smart detectives to bring us Cenzo, an ordinary fisherman from Venice who drags a dead (or wait, is she?) Giulia from the lagoon. It’s WWII and the Nazis are hard at work trying to find Giulia for reasons unknown. The ominous threat of the Nazi invasion hangs over our heads, as Cenzo and Giulia circle each other warily.Smith waxes lyrical about the subject of fishing regularly, but with impressive detail:For a fisherman, the subject of nets was deep and complex. A bragotto could be towed by two people collecting small fry, whereas a baicolera was a winged net designed to catch the noble sea bass. A seragia had as many as six nets staked in a circle. A saltarello was a spiral net for sea bream and shad. A half-moon net was a mezza luna. Most ingenious and beautiful of all was pesca il cielo, a net that floated high above the water to “fish the clouds.”And there were seasons. Fish left the lagoon in the wintertime and didn’t return until March to lay eggs in warm water. There was fidelity; swordfish swam together, male and female. There were troublemakers: spider crabs trying to get free made a mess out of nets. Dolphins made a banquet out of fish trapped in the nets. Every net, no matter how different its design, ended in a death chamber.Most mysterious of all creatures was the soft-shelled crab. At the first tinge of dawn, Cenzo took Giulia into a swamp where narrow channels wended through tall spartina grass. At a dock were stacks of boxes and bags and a dozen indolent cats.“October is the best time for catching crabs, November’s not so bad, and in winter they’ve gone out to sea. March, they’re back to lay their eggs. In June you have to check your crab pots twice a day. That’s your calendar."But it’s WWII and Cenzo and Giulia are soon separated.Moving from Venice to Salo on Lake Garda to the Italian Alps to Milan, and featuring a cast of movie producers, resistance fighters, fisherman and barmen, The Girl from Venice is cinematic and enjoyable. It’s a self-described romance, but sometimes I think the romance is for the fishing of Venice; the fishing scenes sometimes seem more lovingly described than the romantic scenes!Martin Cruz Smith’s prose is effortless and a slick as fish scales, with nary a wrong word to get hung up on. The characters of The Girl from Venice all ring true, if occasionally veering towards stereotypes. As a war-time thriller and romance, Girl from Venice works very well. Fans of Alan Furst will feel right at home inside this novel. Fans looking for the dark humor and penetrating human insight of Arkady Renko mostly won’t find it here. But Arkady is such an iconic figure that it’s no small writerly feat for Smith to escape his clutches, and not end up with Italian-Arkady-in-WWII.Fans of WWII fiction or fishing or both, will greatly enjoy this latest from Martin Cruz Smith.(I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.)
    • 3/5
      This is not Martin Cruz Smith as I remember him from previous books. This book is set in Venice and Salo, Italy in the last days of World War II when it appears impossible to separate the good guys from bad and right from wrong.Cenzo Vianello is a fisherman with a film star brother. Cenzo has saved a young Jewish girl whose parents were murdered. In an effort to send her to safety, Cenzo has lost track of her and agrees to accompany his brother to Salo. The history of these last days of the war is interesting and I don't think, has been widely written about.There is a much to build on to make this a great book , but it falls flat. Not enough detail, nothing that makes the reader sufficiently engaged to really care about the outcome.Read as an ARC from NetGalley.