Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan

 

Characters/People
Italian	Germans and others
Pino Lella Mimo – brother Michel – father Porzia – mother Cicci – younger sister   Carletto Beltramini – best friend Parents own fruit stand   Tullio Galimberh – 5 years older than Pino, watching Colonel Rauff   Uncle Albert Albanese – luggage store Aunt Greta   Anna – girl Pino met in in 1943 – became Dolly’s maid, 1944   Father Re – camp in Motto, helping Jews escape Brother Bormio – cook   Cardinal Schuster   Bergstrom – met Jewish escapees in Switzerland   Alberto Ascari – Lake Como, taught Pino to drive   Tito – Italian, pretended to be with resistance but really robbing people	Colonel Rauff – Hitler Secret Police   Major General Hans Leyers – Pino became his driver in 1944, spying for resistance   Dolly – Leyers’ mistress
	Jewish Refugees taken over mountain:   Maria, Ricardo, Luigi (smoker)   Elena Napolitano - violinist
	Others   Major Frank Knebel – US Fifth Army

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2017 paperback edition.

1.       When they sent him away, did you think Pino’s parents knew he would be trained to escort refugees across the border to Switzerland?  Was it fair for Father Re to train Pino for these missions without telling he from the beginning?

2.       How was Pino wise enough to know how to reach the refugees when they were struggling?  For example, he told Luigi to imagine he was climbing the Colosseum and Elena Napolitano to compare the climb to her first time playing La Scala.

3.       Discuss Major General Leyers.  Why did he save the four Jewish children from the train car, work with Schuster to keep Nazis from leveling Milan, etc.?  Do you think he was basically a good person or just only looking out for himself above all others including Germany?

4.       Major Knebel told Pino that Leyers was a hero.  Were the Americans wrong in this assessment?

5.       What did you think about his idea of doing favors for people.   Leyers said, “When you have done men favors, when you look out for others so that they can prosper, they owe you.  With each favor you become stronger, more supported” (page 274).

6.       Should Pino have felt guilty about not saving Anna?  Leyers told Pino her death was his fault because he arrested Leyers instead of taking him back to the apartment to check on Dolly and Anna.  He told Pino, “If there’s anyone directly responsible for Dolly and Anna’s death, Pino, it is you” (page 479).  What does this tell us about Leyers?

7.       Cardinal Schuster told Pino that he “had the right to survive.  Every human has that basic, God-given right” (page 439).  Did this help him any, in the moment or later?

8.       Anna told Pino that she was a “student of happiness” and that “Sometimes happiness comes to us.  But usually you have to seek it out…You start by looking around you for the blessing you have.  When you find them, be grateful” (page 261).  How did Anna personify this advice?  Do you think Pino was able to follow the advice later in his life?

9.       It seems that Leyers knew that Pino was a spy because as they were parting, Leyers called him by his code name, “Observer” (page 489).  Do you think he knew and fed Pino false information?

10.   How did knowing Pino survived the war and was still alive affect your reading?

11.   Did the “Aftermath” section add to you understanding and enjoyment?

12.   Why did this story have such an effect on the author when he first heard it?

13.   The author first heard Pino’s story in 2006, and the novel was published in 2017.  During that time he co-authored five novels with James Patterson.  Why did this novel take him so long and do you think collaborating with Patterson had any effect on his writing?