Publishers Weekly
04/04/2022
University of Montreal literature professor Mazzeo (Eliza Hamilton) unravels a tangled knot of Fascist intrigue and family infighting in this riveting WWII history. At the center of the story are Italian foreign minister Galleazzo Ciano and his wife, Edda, Benito Mussolini’s favorite daughter. In 1943, Ciano voted with the Fascist Party’s Grand Council to oust Mussolini. His replacement was Ciano’s archrival, Pietro Badoglio, who, in a bid to solidify his power, put Ciano under house arrest. This prompted Edda to approach a group of Nazi officials with a proposal: if they helped the Cianos flee to Spain, Edda would hand over her husband’s diaries (which contained state secrets and unflattering depictions of Italian and German officials) so they could further their own aims with Hitler. After striking a deal, the family was betrayed and ended up in Germany, where S.S. agent Hilde Beetz fell in love with Ciano while seducing him into revealing the whereabouts of his diaries. Hitler eventually returned Mussolini to power and sent the Cianos back to Italy, where Ciano was executed in 1944. Soon after, Beetz brokered a deal between Edda and U.S. intelligence, which wanted Ciano’s diaries for evidence against the Nazis in postwar trials. Mazzeo efficiently relates these complex events and renders empathetic portraits of the story’s main players. WWII buffs will be enthralled. (June)
From the Publisher
"Compelling . . . a tangled web of deceit, corruption, betrayal, courage, and family intrigue. It reads like a spy thriller, moving at a fast pace, and even though the reader knows the successful outcome, the suspense never lets up."—Wall Street Journal
"Intelligent and compelling, Mazzeo’s probing book delves intriguingly into the 'moral thicket' into which a group of strangers found themselves plunged during the long, dark days of World War II. A tantalizingly novelistic history lesson."—Kirkus
"Mazzeo efficiently relates these complex events and renders empathetic portraits of the story’s main players. WWII buffs will be enthralled."—Publishers Weekly
"Reads like a John le Carré novel, too incredible to be true—and yet it is . . . This little-known but very important WWII story has the pacing of a thriller novel with the research acumen expected from this excellent writer."—Booklist
"A nail-biting account of state crimes and secrets, real world action pitting spy versus spy and diplomat versus diplomat."—Library Journal
"A little-known history finally comes to light in Sisters in Resistance."—Town and Country
"Mazzeo’s latest deep dive into fascinating, complicated women . . . A gripping novelistic history lesson that reads like a plot plucked from a Ken Follett or Alan Furst spy novel–except it all happened."—Zoomer
“An important, often harrowing, and until now little-known story of the Holocaust: how thousands of children were rescued from the Warsaw ghetto by a Polish woman of extraordinary daring and moral courage.”—Joseph Kanon, Author of Leaving Berlin, Praise for Irena’s Children
“Mazzeo chronicles a ray of hope in desperate times in this compelling biography of a brave woman who refused to give up.”—Kirkus Reviews, Praise for Irena's Children
“Mazzeo reveals a hotbed of illicit affairs and deadly intrigue, as well as stunning acts of defiance and treachery.”—Brad Thor, The Today Show Summer Reads, Praise for The Hotel on Place Vendome
"Tilar J. Mazzeo lifts the veil to reveal a lesser-known narrative of scandal and subterfuge . . . A work of history that reads as enticingly as a novel."—Harper's Bazaar, Praise for Hotel on Place Vendome
“An enticing stew of biography and history.”—USA Today, Praise for The Widow Clicquot
“The story of a woman who was a smashing success long before anyone conceptualized the glass ceiling.”—New York Times Book Review, Praise for The Widow Clicquot
“A magnificent window through which to understand [Coco Chanel] and her milieu . . . Impeccable research and crafting make a seemingly narrow topic feel infinitely important.”—Kirkus Reviews, Praise for The Secret of Chanel No. 5
“Vivid, compelling, and unputdownable . . . Eliza Hamilton finally takes her place in the pantheon of remarkable American women who, no less than the men they loved, built this nation.”—Christopher Andersen, #1 New York Times bestselling author, Praise for Eliza Hamilton
Library Journal
05/01/2022
State secrets, atrocities, spies, double agents: this backdrop forms the real-life entanglements of this biograpby by Mazzeo (Irena's Children). At the center of this web is the daughter of Benito Mussolini, Edda Mussolini Ciano, and her husband, Galeazzo Ciano. While Galeazzo is a foreign minister and son-in-law to Mussolini, he also becomes disenchanted by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany's crimes. His diaries become sought-after documents by both his enemies and his allies. Readers enter Mussolini's inner circle, where politics has devolved into a deadly game of risk. There is the notoriously cruel Joachim von Ribbentrop of Hitler's administration, one that the Ciano couple distrust. There is also the seductive spy Hildegard Burkhardt Beetz, who becomes a double agent against Germany. Galeazzo turned on Mussolini in 1943, and he paid for it with his life. However, his wife Edda had a plan for revenge herself. She would get Ciano's papers, which detailed Hitler and Mussolini's secret plans, to the Allies. The style is energetic yet informative. VERDICT A nail-biting account of state crimes and secrets, real world action pitting spy versus spy and diplomat versus diplomat.—Jeffrey Meyer
SEPTEMBER 2023 -- AudioFile
This audiobook demonstrates yet again that history's footnotes often have the most revealing and important stories to tell. Narrated in a perfect tone and mix of emotions by Lisa Flanagan, the work focuses on how a German agent, a prominent American's wife, and Mussolini's daughter, Edda Ciano, worked to transfer the diaries of Edda's husband, Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, to the Allies in order to document Nazi atrocities at Nuremberg. The story--which includes espionage, romance, counterintelligence, and more--reads like the best spy novels. Flanagan's performance is flawless, particularly her delivery of dialogue and discussions of how various politicos maneuvered against great odds to obtain Ciano's important diaries. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-04-12
A distinguished cultural studies scholar explores the web of intrigue surrounding the infamous Ciano Diaries.
Before he became famous for condemning the Third Reich and its leaders, Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944) was better known as Mussolini’s playboy son-in-law and foreign minister. In her latest elegant book of European cultural history, Mazzeo offers a colorful account of Ciano and Mussolini, the affairs and double-crosses that surrounded the diaries, and the courageous women whose efforts saved the manuscripts for posterity. Ciano began keeping diaries about Hitler’s inner circle in 1939, the year he started to question the war in Europe and the Third Reich’s alliance with Italy. Though in the service of a dictator, Ciano realized Mussolini’s involvement with Germany would be Italy’s downfall. So he turned to his journals, where he expressed his virulent disgust with the Third Reich and recorded “the political squabbles” between men like Himmler and Goebbels who “vied for power and influence with Hitler.” By 1943, the foreign minister, who gossiped shamelessly about his diary, had become a liability to the Third Reich. The Germans then sent a beautiful, young, married spy to learn the location of the journals, which Ciano had hidden before using them as collateral for a passage into exile. Little went according to plan. The spy fell in love with Ciano and turned double agent for the Allies. In that role, she developed an unlikely alliance with Ciano’s wife, Edda, and an American socialite to protect as much of Ciano’s manuscript—portions of which still ended up in German hands—for postwar publication in the U.S. Intelligent and compelling, Mazzeo’s probing book delves intriguingly into the “moral thicket” into which a group of strangers found themselves plunged during the long, dark days of World War II.
A tantalizingly novelistic history lesson.
