In the novel Shadowed by Grace: A Story of Monuments Men by Cara Putman, Captain Rachel Justice is a photojournalist during WWII. Her mother is dying of tuberculosis, and Rachel takes an overseas assignment to Italy to try to find the father she never knew to see if he can help provide for her mother's treatment. All Rachel has to go on is a sketchbook given by her father to her mother with the initials RMA on some of the pages. Her mother refuses to say any more about her father and does not want Rachel to find him.
Lieutenant Scott Lindstrom is an officer with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Division, and stationed in Naples. He had arts degrees from Harvard and was a curator of a museum in Philadelphia. But he felt he could use his expertise to do something meaningful, to save history, to salvage beauty and meaning to sustain people after the war. He says, "We are defined by what we love and respect" (p. 28, Kindle version).
The problem was, his superiors and many soldiers didn't take his job seriously. When lives were at stake, what did art matter to them? He had trouble getting the men and resources he needed.
When he did get a chance to talk to local people who might know where art was hidden, they didn't trust him. The Germans had said they'd protect art, too---but they stole or destroyed much of it.
And now he was assigned to babysit a woman photojournalist who shouldn't be so close to the danger.
So Scott and Rachel get off to a rocky start. But as they get to know each other, they appreciate each other's mission and characters.
When Rachel shows Scott the sketchbook, hoping his knowledge of art and Italy may help her identify the artist, she doesn't say the artist is her father. Scott thinks he recognizes the early work of an artist friend and mentor in the sketches, but he's suspicious about why Rachel would have such a prize.
Scott is a Christian. Rachel isn't sure she believes or trusts God. Her own father's disinterest in her colors her view of God.
There is historical fiction that contains a romance, and romances that occur in a historical setting. I prefer the former, but this story is the latter. Still, the peek into the Monuments Men work, art history, photojournalism, the problems women in the military faced, the refugee situations in Europe all made for an interesting story.
One thing that jarred me just a bit was a major betrayal in the story that seemed to blow over much more quickly and easily than I would have expected.
But all in all, this was an enjoyable book.
Cara shares some of the influences that went into the book in an afterword and in the video below.
Were you familiar with the "Monuments Men" and their work?
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