The Tuscan Child

The novel unfolds across two intertwined timelines: one set during World War II in German-occupied Tuscany, the other in England and Italy nearly 30 years later.

In December 1944, Hugo Langley, a British bomber pilot, parachutes from his burning bomber over Tuscany with a bullet wound in his leg, landing in an olive grove near the hill town of San Salvatore. A young Italian woman named Sofia Bartoli finds him. Hugo replies in Italian, learned while studying art in Florence before the war, and Sofia helps him to a bombed-out monastery on the hilltop. Her husband, Guido, has been missing for three years, though she refuses to give up hope he is alive in a prison camp. She is raising their young son, Renzo, alone. She cleans Hugo's wound and promises to return with food.

In April 1973, Hugo's daughter Joanna Langley, 25, walks to Langley Hall after learning of her father's death. Hugo was a distant, bitter man she has not visited in over a year. Joanna grew up in the gatekeeper's lodge after Hugo sold the Hall to pay inheritance taxes; the estate became a girls' boarding school. Her mother, Elsie, died when Joanna was 11, after which Joanna attended the school on scholarship and endured years of bullying. Now an aspiring solicitor on leave from her London firm, she has long dreamed of buying back Langley Hall. The headmistress, Miss Honeywell, reveals Hugo had once been a talented painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy, a fact Joanna never knew.

At Hugo's funeral, Joanna meets Nigel Barton, a young solicitor from the family firm, who reveals Hugo had a previous marriage and a son, Teddy, whose mother took him to America. Among Hugo's stored belongings, Joanna finds a leather box containing a carved wooden angel, a cigarette packet with a sketch of a beautiful woman, and a sealed envelope addressed to Signora Sofia Bartoli in San Salvatore. Posted in April 1945, it was returned stamped "Not known at this address." The letter declares Hugo's love for Sofia, reveals his wife has left him, and closes: "I want you to know that our beautiful boy is safe. He is hidden where only you can find him" (61). Joanna realizes her cold father had a passionate love affair and possibly fathered a child who was never found. Hugo's first son, Teddy Schulz, later arrives from Ohio but renounces any claim on the modest estate and departs.

In the wartime storyline, Hugo's wound becomes severely infected. Sofia tends him through days of fever, tying a medal of Saint Rita to his wrist. As he recovers, they grow closer. She confides that Cosimo, a local partisan fighter who has been courting her, makes her uncomfortable.

Joanna travels to San Salvatore and lodges with Paola Rossini, a warm widow who reminds her of Elsie. Private reflections reveal Joanna's recent trauma: Her partner, Adrian, a fellow law student, pressured her to end a pregnancy; she was then struck by a taxi and lost the baby, and Adrian left her for another woman. In the village, men recall a plane crash but no survivors. At Sofia's name, one man spits; they say she ran off with a German officer, abandoning baby Renzo. Joanna meets Renzo Bartoli, now 32, who speaks English from having worked in a London restaurant. His adopted father, Cosimo di Georgio, accuses Joanna of being German. Paola explains that Cosimo became wealthy by buying land from families of men killed in a partisan massacre he alone survived.

At Christmas 1944, Hugo sketches Sofia's portrait on his cigarette packet, telling her, "I have made you beautiful. That is how I see you" (198). That night, a stray Allied bomb cracks the chapel floor, revealing steps into a hidden crypt. The next day, they discover a perfectly preserved underground chapel with Renaissance paintings. Behind a carved screen, they find a painting of the Madonna and Child of extraordinary beauty: a radiant baby with golden curls reaching for two cherubs. Sofia exclaims, "Oh, what a beautiful boy" (241). Hugo believes the painting may be the work of Leonardo da Vinci. He hides it behind a locked door in the crypt and conceals the entrance with rubble.

In 1973, Gianni Martinelli, one of the village men, is found murdered in the well beside Joanna's room. An envelope from Gianni contains a note claiming he knows the truth about Sofia, along with a partisan star pin, bloodstained cloth, and a German banknote. Joanna realizes he was killed for intending to reveal a wartime secret.

The wartime situation grows desperate. The partisans are massacred after a betrayal; only Cosimo survives. With German soldiers closing in, Hugo gives Sofia his gold signet ring to trade for a cart so they can flee with Renzo. They confess their love and make love for the first and only time. Before Sofia can return, German soldiers capture Hugo at the monastery. During transport, American bombers attack the convoy, and Hugo is thrown clear as his vehicle explodes.

In 1973, Renzo and Joanna grow closer as evidence mounts. Renzo notices Joanna's signet ring matches one among Sofia's possessions, bearing Hugo's initials, and accepts the truth. He recalls childhood memories of his mother climbing the hill daily with a basket. Before Joanna departs, they explore the monastery ruins. An earthquake cracks the floor, revealing the steps Hugo and Sofia sealed decades earlier. They descend, find the crypt intact, and discover the painting behind the locked door.

Cosimo appears at the top of the stairs with a gun, demanding the painting. Joanna accuses him of betraying Sofia and the partisans. Renzo wrestles his father for the weapon; Cosimo knocks Renzo unconscious. Nigel, who has arrived unexpectedly from England, appears and flees for help. An aftershock causes the rock beneath Cosimo to collapse, and he falls to his death.

Nigel brings separate news: A cleaned family portrait is a previously unknown work by Thomas Gainsborough, the celebrated 18th-century English painter, potentially worth several hundred thousand pounds. Joanna authorizes its sale. Father Filippo, the village's wartime priest, then summons Renzo and Joanna to his deathbed. He confesses he betrayed Sofia and Hugo to the German commandant, who had threatened to execute the village. Sofia had told him about the English airman in confession, and the priest weighed one life against many. Renzo forgives him: "You did what you thought was best, Father. There was no right answer" (334).

Hugo's final chapter reveals what happened after the war. He woke in a hospital near Rome; American troops had found him among the German dead. Shipped home, he learned his father had died and Brenda, his first wife, had left for an American officer, taking Teddy to the United States. His letter to Sofia was returned; the mayor of San Salvatore replied that Sofia "was seen driving away with a German officer" (329). Unable to pay inheritance taxes, Hugo sold Langley Hall and proposed to Elsie Williams, the loyal housekeeper; they moved into the lodge. This reveals that Joanna's beloved mother was the former housekeeper, and Hugo's remoteness stemmed from losing Sofia and everything he loved.

The novel closes with Joanna and Renzo on the terrace of Cosimo's villa, now Renzo's inheritance. Renzo resolves to return the land Cosimo took from massacre victims' families. Joanna realizes she no longer wants to buy back Langley Hall. Renzo proposes opening a restaurant in the villa after finishing chef training in London while Joanna passes her bar exam. They kiss as the sun sets over the Tuscan hills.