“Italy’s buried wartime secrets lead to shocking violence in this labyrinthine historical mystery.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Martini’s novel, based on a real incident, centers around a July 1945 massacre in which left-wing partisans murdered a group of alleged Fascists imprisoned in the town of Schio in northeastern Italy. At the story’s heart is a memoir recounting the investigation of the crime by Lieutenant John Casanova of the United States Army, who combs through possible motives that might include revenge for Fascist atrocities, personal vendettas, and a communist plot to start an insurrection.

His sleuthing unearths murky relationships between partisan leader Giulio Moro, pro-Fascist businessman Ettore Godin (who was shot but survived), and Renzo Balbo, the partisan who Godin says shot him. Casanova, an Italian-American who despises Italy, probes disdainfully into the corruption and violence but eventually stoops to unconscionable methods—think beatings and cockroaches—in his quest for answers. The novel then shifts to Balbo’s account of the Italian Army’s disastrous retreat from Stalingrad in January of 1943, an ordeal of frostbite, carnage, cannibalism, and betrayal that he endured with Moro and Godin. Framing the novel is the present-day narrative of Alessandro Lago, an Italian journalist who discovers among his dying father’s papers a photograph of Balbo, Moro, and Godin on the Russian Front alongside his uncle Alessandro; the picture entangles him with a mysterious woman who leads him to Casanova’s and Balbo’s writings and neo-Fascist politics. Martini writes in three distinctive registers, switching between Lago’s moody, atmospheric meditation on blighted lives, Casanova’s noirlikedetective story, and Balbo’s grisly, surreal war epic. (“[A] mortar [shell] land[ed] not twenty meters from me, hitting a sled full of injured men and I could see parts of them, pieces of their bodies fully formed cartwheel into the air…I felt that wave of bone and meat rip into my face like shrapnel.”) Martini’s storytelling is vivid and gripping, and his writing reads like lean, muscular poetry. The result is a terrific read with real psychological depth beneath the hard-bitten prose.

A gripping saga that roots excruciating betrayals in a nation’s tragic history.

“Vivid and chilling, this is a riveting tale of the horrors of war and a dangerous truth waiting to be unearthed.”
—Sublime

Based around actual events, this novel unfolds across multiple tim multiple timelines, each steeped in its own brand of tension. It begins with a mystery uncovered by a present-day, disillusioned journalist, Alex Lago, who finds a photograph among his dying father’s possessions—a photograph that attracts the attention of a beautiful woman and sets in motion the revelation of events that began on the battlefields of Stalingrad in 1942 and continued with an American investigation into a brutal massacre in Italy in 1945.

With crisp and wonderfully atmospheric writing, Martini paints vivid portraits of wartime horrors and post-war reckonings. The narrative is fraught with moral dilemmas and unforeseen dangers and is coated with tension and intrigue. Using his masterful command of descriptive narrative, the author balances action, suspense, and emotional depth to deliver a truly immersive, thought-provoking read with an unflinching look at the sins of the past and the lengths to which the powerful will go to keep them buried. This novel is a must-read for fans of historical thrillers layered with espionage and suspense.

“Sprawling, stirring, and beautifully written…”
—Prairie Review

Martini delves into the intersection of history, familial ties, and the lingering scars of conflict in his compelling novel. The story follows Alex Lago, a jaded journalist watching his life unravel. A chance encounter with a World War II photograph sparks a desperate effort to bond with his dying father and propels Alex into the depths of a decades-old mystery rife with dark family secrets. Alternating between Alex’s somber self-reflections, a noir-inspired detective story, and a surreal exploration of wartime madness, the narrative deepens the story’s emotional impact while highlighting the complexity of history. Martini’s taut prose provides a haunting glimpse into the psychological scars of conflict and the moral dilemmas facing his characters. He seamlessly weaves Alex’s emotional turmoil with the vivid backdrop of post-war Italy. As Alex navigates a deep web of betrayal and weight of legacy, readers are pulled into his raw struggle for understanding and redemption. A gripping portrait of a forgotten World War II battle, the novel deftly ties past deceptions to present reckonings. 

Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this one.

“…profoundly moving and thought-provoking.”
—IndieReader

Alexander Lago finds a picture amongst his dying father’s things, which, when he posts it online, draws the attention of a mysterious woman, Sofia, who begs him to take it down in exchange for an explanation of the story behind it, a tale of politics, murder, and war that leaves its mark on future generations.

When Alex Lago, trapped in an unhappy marriage and already mourning his late mother, finds out his father has terminal cancer, he travels to Italy to say goodbye. Among his father’s things, he finds a photograph with three unknown men and his long-lost uncle Alessandro, who disappeared in Russia during World War II. He posts the photograph online, not thinking much of it, but it immediately attracts the attention of a mysterious woman named Sofia—who demands he take it down. When she offers him the story behind the photo in exchange, he goes to meet her. He is given the writings of two men: the report of an Italian-American Lieutenant, John Casanova, sent to a small town called Schio to investigate the mass murder of prisoners deemed “fascists” and “collaborators” by their partisan neighbors; and the confession of a man he interrogates under torture, a wartime deserter named Renzo Balbo.

Sandro Martini’s CIAO, AMORE, CIAO emerges with careful pacing and multiple perspectives, giving us not only the mystery unraveling itself but also a multifaceted emotional commentary on the brutality bred by war and politics. Casanova’s cynical, calloused account, as he sweeps into the small town—threatening and torturing his way to the truth—and then willingly suppresses it in favor of his superior’s preferred narrative contrasts with Alex’s quiet vigil by his father’s side, grieving losses that go back generations while watching death take its inevitable toll. There’s also Balbo’s desperate struggle to survive hell and then figure out how to build a life in the world left behind after the chaos and corruption, among the bleeding wounds of personal and village grudges manipulated in service to more distant political goals.

This is not an easy book to read, and the author does not hold back when describing horrific ways for human beings to die. CIAO, AMORE, CIAO is not for the squeamish, or at least not before bedtime. Balbo’s confession is perhaps a bit unbelievably eloquent and extensive for a hasty account written after torture, but it’s intensely powerful and heartrending. On the whole, this book provides a deeply thoughtful commentary on how individual, personal struggles and losses interact with larger political and military battles. On one hand, the grand national goals are reduced to “just little grunts fighting and dying, and it’s all personal in the end,” but at the same time, those “little grunts” (along with their personal quarrels and grudges) are used and manipulated for larger political contests. Love and loss, survival and struggle, political and personal goals weave together in threads throughout CIAO, AMORE, CIAO. The result is profoundly moving and thought-provoking.

An engrossing historical mystery that unravels before the reader layer by layer, Sandro Martini’s CIAO, AMORE, CIAO explores the depth of cruelty and human suffering caused by war and the exploitation of ordinary people for political interests.