Free Public Library
Thread of Grace
Mary Doria Russell
It is September 8, 1943, and
fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning
Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and
her father are among the thousands of Jewish
refugees scrambling over the Alps toward
Italy, where they hope to be safe at last,
now that the Italians have broken with
Germany and made a separate peace with the
Allies. The Blums will soon discover that
Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes
an open battleground among the Nazis, the
Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding,
and ordinary Italian civilians trying to
In the process of earning her undergraduate
and graduate degrees, Russell studied
linguistics, genetics, anatomy, archaeology,
and geology--all of which found their
way into her critically acclaimed debut
novel, The Sparrow. This novel goes in
a different direction, exploring history and
the impact of large events on individuals.
choice to write about World War II and Italy,
Ms Russell said: "I am a Jew by choice
and Italian by heritage. The highest Jewish
survival rate in Nazi-occupied Europe was in
Italy! We’ve spent 60 years trying to
understand what went wrong during the
Holocaust. I wanted to know what went right
in Italy." (http://www.randomhouse.com)
did you think of the fate of each
character? Did you want the book to
about Claudette’s choices? What
would her father have thought of her
children never understand her, and she
dies a mystery to them. Have you been
affected by the war experiences of a
family member? Were you aware of how
their experiences affected them?
was your reaction to hearing that
Claudette’s mother and brothers were
put on a train heading east?
our own knowledge of World War II inform
our reading of the novel? How?
who did not live through World War II
often believe they would have hidden
someone like Anne Frank or helped
refugees from Nazi Germany the way the
Italian peasants did. What would be
an analogous risk today?
are accustomed to admiring the partisan
resistance to German occupation during
World War II. In today’s world, there
are many places where armed resistance to
occupying forces is called terrorism.
What makes a resistance legitimate?
Does the motive of the occupying
force make any difference?
Leoni attempts to remain apolitical
during the Nazi occupation. Is moderation
or neutrality possible or even desirable
did you think of Renzo Leoni? Does
your impression of him change during the
course of the novel?
did you think of Dr. Schramm? Were
they right to hide him?
Renzo Leoni's wartime bombing of the
Abyssinian hospital have a different
moral value than Schramm's killings? How
are Renzo and Werner Schramm alike?
title comes from a Hebrew saying:
"No matter how dark the tapestry God
weaves for us, there's always a thread of
What does this mean in the story?
Is this the message the author is
sending her readers?